The Greater Kaohsiung Government yesterday said it would spend one month evaluating the possibility of hosting the 2019 Asian Games after Vietnam withdrew from hosting the sports event last week.
Democratic Progressive Party Greater Kaohsiung City Councilor Chen Sin-yu (陳信瑜) suggested that the city seek cooperative efforts from Greater Tainan and Pingtung County to show that southern Taiwan is capable of hosting such an international sports competition.
Chen said Kaohsiung indicated in 2010 that it was interested in hosting the Asian Games in 2019, but it lost the bid to Taipei.
However, Taipei gave up its quest to host the Asian Games in 2019 and decided to bid for the 2017 Summer Universiade instead.
“Kaohsiung missed the chance to bid for the Asian Games twice before,” she said.
“The city should do everything it can this time to host the Games, which will demonstrate to the world that the city is able to raise its publicity around the world and host an international sports event,” Chen added.
Chen said the city had hosted the 2009 World Games, for which it built a state-of-the-art stadium and recruited thousands of passionate volunteers.
These are advantages that the city has over other potential hosts, she said.
Greater Kaohsiung Department of Sports Director Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) said the department would start evaluating the possibility of hosting the Games after briefing Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).
Vietnam backed out as the host of the Asian Games on Friday last week, saying that the poor preparation could damage the country’s reputation and the cost of hosting the sports event could far exceed its proposed budget.
Aside from Greater Kaohsiung, both Malaysia and Indonesia have indicated their intentions to replace Vietnam as the host country for the Games.
Malaysia said it would consider hosting the Games if the Olympic Council of Asia helps pay for the cost.
Indonesia was seen as a strong candidate to replace Vietnam, as the two were competing in the bid in 2012 to host the Asian Games. Vietnam’s Hanoi City trumped Surabaya in Indonesia and secured the right to host the Games.
However, Indonesia Olympic Committee chairwoman Rita Subowo said Surabaya would only be ready to host the Asian Youth Games in 2021, not the Asian Games in 2019.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching