Legislators yesterday pressured Sports Administration Director-General Lin Te-fu (林德福) to take a tougher stance on speaking up for Taiwanese rights, freedom of expression and for fans’ enthusiasm cheering of the nation’s athletes at this year’s Taipei Summer Universiade.
Lin, appearing at the Education and Culture Committee, said that 49 of the planned 53 Taipei Universiade competition sites have been completed.
He praised Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) for doing a good job of drumming up publicity for the Games, which are to be held from Aug. 19 to 30.
However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) asked Lin to stand up for Taiwanese rights and freedom of expression, and to allow fans to wave national flags, write slogans and display other items to create a lively atmosphere at the event.
“We understand the need to balance freedom of expression and following regulations,” Wu said, “but, as the Universiade Games are being held here in our nation, I do not see how officials can stop our fans from using our national flag at venues to cheer on competitors.”
Lin said he had spoken with International University Sports Federation officials, who are in charge of Universiade events, and they said that general political slogans are prohibited.
“We have to follow the ‘Olympic model’ for international competitions,” he added.
However, Wu said that regulations for Univsersiade events and most international tournaments do not apply to ticket-holding spectators.
She said that many fans attending the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung displayed the national flag and wore clothing and headwear with patriotic symbols and that event went ahead without major problems.
“Spectators will be permitted to display the national flag at Univsersiade events,” Lin said.
Wu showed the committee a Bravo Bear (熊讚) official Taipei Universiade mascot wearing a national flag and the slogan “Taiwan is Taiwan” (台灣就是台灣).
“This is what some Taiwanese fans will bring to the Games to cheer for our nation’s athletes. Do you think this is political slogan,” Wu asked.
“Where do you draw the line? What if some people are concerned about human rights in China, and they put on Bravo Bear with the slogan ‘Release Lee Ming-che (李明哲),’ can they do that?” he asked.
Other DPP legislators said Lin should designate protest zones outside Games venues, as a number of activist groups plan to hold demonstrations to demand “Taiwan” is used at domestic and international sporting events instead of “Chinese Taipei.”
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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