Though some in Taiwan have urged China to separate politics and sports when Beijing hosts the 2008 Olympics, history suggests China is likely to use the Games as a battlefront anyway.
The first battle was in April 1975, when China applied to join the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Then in March 1981, Taipei's Olympic Committee agreed to change its name to the "Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee."
Before the Montreal Games in 1976, Beijing asked Canada to bar the Taiwan team's entry. The IOC suggested that Taiwan participate as "Taiwan-Republic of China (ROC)," but both Taipei and Beijing rejected this proposal.
Uncompromising attitudes
Taiwan insisted on participating as the Republic of China. China opposed this as it implied the existence of "two Chinas."
The US then threatened to boycott the Games if Taiwan was excluded. Days before the Games, the issue remained unresolved.
Finally, the Taipei delegation, rejecting the IOC's proposal, went home -- a voluntary withdrawal similar to that from the UN in 1971.
Like Beijing, Taipei initially held uncompromising attitudes toward China's and its own involvement in the Olympic movement. Following the official 1970s policy of not negotiating directly with China, Taiwan chose to opt out of direct negotiations with both China and the IOC.
By so doing, "Taiwan pushed the PRC and IOC to work together for a solution without having to consult Taiwan," wrote Gerald Chan in his 1985 article "`The Two-Chinas' Problem and the Olympic Formula" in the journal, Pacific Affairs.
Beijing, on the other hand, insisted that Taiwan be expelled from the IOC as a condition of its entry to the committee. Beijing later relented but still insisted on two other conditions.
First, China's Olympic committee had to be recognized as the sole legitimate Chinese organization in the IOC. Second, the IOC had to forbid the use of the state name, flag and anthem of the ROC.
In October 1979, the IOC recognized the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, and both were permitted to send teams to the Olympic Games.
The Chinese Taipei committee, however, would use a new flag, anthem and emblem.
In March 1981, the IOC and Taiwan reached a formal agreement confirming this so-called "Olympic model."
`Olympic Model'
Byron Weng (
"This is what I called `a model of one and a half sovereign states.' The model is a bit better than `one country, two systems,' but it failed to sketch out two clear sovereign states," said Weng, a senior advisor to President Chen Shui-bian (
The Olympic model was the first instance in which Taiwan substituted the name "Chinese Taipei" for its official designation as a member of a non-governmental organization.
The name was accepted by both sides for different reasons. Beijing thought that it suggested Taiwan was a part of China.
For Taiwan, it could translate the title "Chinese Taipei" into the mandarin, "Chung-hua," an abbreviation for the Chinese for ROC, thereby allowing Taiwan to use its official name at least before Chinese speakers.
The Olympic formula was important in that it not only enabled Taipei and Beijing to take part in the same Olympics for the first time in Los Angeles in 1984, but helped establish a crucial precedent in solving similar problems in other international organizations, scholars noted.
Useful precedent
For example, Taipei and Beijing entered the Pacific Economic Cooperation Committee (PECC), simultaneously in 1986, and the "Olympic model" served as a useful precedent for the Canadian mediator between the two sides, Eric Trigg, then PECC chairman.
Trigg began his mediation with Chan's article from Pacific Affairs, which outlined the Olympic model and which he referred to as his "Bible." The formula was eventually accepted by both sides, facilitating the entry of both to the PECC.
Another example was Taiwan's entry into the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 1991 together with China and Hong Kong, with Taiwan represented as "Chinese Taipei."
But the struggle of the late 1970s and early 1980s as well as Beijing's continuing effort to belittle Taiwan in the international community, scholars say, could make Taipei's involvement in the Beijing Olympics a sensitive issue.
Weng said Taiwan should think twice about accepting Beijing's proposal to let the Olympic torch pass through Taiwan because the move could amount to admitting that the nation is part of China.
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