Internet users in Taiwan inundated online forums and social networking sites with angry comments after Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) was disqualified from the Asian Games on Wednesday.
Yang was disqualified in the first round of her under-49kg bout against Vietnamese opponent Vu Thi Hau while holding a 9-0 lead.
Officials stopped the bout because they believed Yang’s electronic socks, used to register successful kicks, did not meet requirements, even though they had been approved in a pre-bout inspection.
As of yesterday, several fan pages had been set up on the social networking Web site Facebook to support Yang.
“I think the acronym of the World Taekwondo Federation, WTF, says it all: what the fuck,” Ruojin Yen, a member of social networking site Facebook, said in a message on her front page.
Another Facebooker, Michael Wang, believed the whole incident was a conspiracy.
“The whole thing looks like a conspiracy from any perspective: The date of the bout was changed right before it was scheduled to take place, the inspector asked [Yang] to change her socks, and then, at the end, the Korean referee came out and announced her disqualification,” Wang said in a message on Facebook.
Many Taiwanese netizens alleged that the whole incident could be a conspiracy set up by the host country China, because if Yang had won the match, she may have come face-to-face with her Chinese rival, taekwondo athlete Wu Jingyu (吳靜鈺)
Fans also expressed their anger toward China and South Korea, because Zhao Lei (趙磊), vice president of the Asian Taekwondo Union (ATU), is Chinese and Yang Jin-suk, secretary-general of the WTF, is from South Korea.
Some called for a boycott of South Korean goods.
Netizen Tsai A-ka (蔡阿嘎), who has made several videos in reaction to current events, made a video in which he recounted how he tried to buy some food from a convenience store, but all they had were South Korean kimchi-flavored crackers, seaweed and instant noodles.
In the video, he threw all the kimchi-flavored products to the ground and stomped on them.
“Let’s boycott Korean merchandise,” he said. “Let’s stop watching Korean drama! If you want to watch Korean drama, why not just watch Discovery channel?”
“Since Discovery channel and Korean drama show nothing but animals anyway,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
ENHANCING EFFICIENCY: The apron can accommodate 16 airplanes overnight at Taoyuan airport while work on the third runway continues, the transport minister said A new temporary overnight parking apron at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to start operating on Friday next week to boost operational efficiency while the third runway is being constructed, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The apron — one of the crucial projects in the construction of the third runway — can accommodate 16 aircraft overnight at the nation’s largest international airport, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told reporters while inspecting the new facility yesterday morning. Aside from providing the airport operator with greater flexibility in aircraft parking during the third runway construction,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS