The Olympic flag of the Chinese Taipei team was raised, and the National Flag Song (
Taekwondo and archery are not very popular sports events compared to the national sport, baseball -- and players' future prospects are relatively slim. However, these victories show that if the Taiwanese people carefully select events that are suitable for our physique and are willing to work hard, the investment will eventually pay off. The poor performance of Taiwan's baseball team was a disappointment. But problems in the nation's baseball development due to a lack of systematic cultivation and training is more worrisome.
In fact, the success of our Taekwondo contestants and archers resulted from an accumulation of techniques, training and experience. This achievement is a consequence of the selfless devotion of our senior athletes and the blood and sweat of the newcomers.
Unfortunately, year by year the nation's sports budget has been gradually reduced. This is the result of people judging the caliber of an athlete only by his or her victory or defeat. As a consequence, many sports have shrunk in Taiwan. It's admirable that our archers also accomplished their goals, given that their training ground was nothing more than a parking lot used after-hours.
To encourage the public to participate in sports events and to cultivate outstanding sports talent, we need to use resources appropriately. This is not only a priority for people involved in sports, but is also crucial to the development of a diverse society.
Chen and Chu's hard work have brought the nation before the eyes of the world. How glorious this is! These two gold medals will allow the country to stand proud on the international stage, and have given the nation incomparable assistance in focusing its striving for glory. These two historic gold medals have come just at the right time, for Taiwan really needs a victory. It needs such victories to divert attention from a wearying confrontation, to salve the wounds and grievances of its heart and to rediscover itself.
The images of Chen and Chu winning their medals brought emotions of the Taiwanese masses -- sitting before their televisions late into the night -- to a fever pitch. The strains of the National Flag Song sounded so sweet, and the five-ringed Olympic flag looked beautiful.
This was a moment of enormous pride -- but that pride was mixed with regret. For the flag was not Taiwan's national flag, and the music was not Taiwan's national anthem. Such are the compromises that the country must make in order to participate in international sports. It is not the sort of treatment that a normal nation would expect. Taiwan has to work harder to fight for the same kind of treatment other countries get as part of the international community.
For this Olympics, Taiwan spared neither money nor effort to win international recognition. In the runup to the Olympics, it released advertisements with the slogan "Taiwan on the starting line," but these were removed by the Olympic Committee after pressure from China. Because of the excellent performance of its athletes, the nation was still able to shine at this international sports event -- proving the hard truth that "ability is everything." Taiwan has started the Olympic race, and it will only pick up the pace.
From the Iran war and nuclear weapons to tariffs and artificial intelligence, the agenda for this week’s Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is packed. Xi would almost certainly bring up Taiwan, if only to demonstrate his inflexibility on the matter. However, no one needs to meet with Xi face-to-face to understand his stance. A visit to the National Museum of China in Beijing — in particular, the “Road to Rejuvenation” exhibition, which chronicles the rise and rule of the Chinese Communist Party — might be even more revealing. Xi took the members
Taiwan’s higher education system is facing an existential crisis. As the demographic drop-off continues to empty classrooms, universities across the island are locked in a desperate battle for survival, international student recruitment and crucial Ministry of Education funding. To win this battle, institutions have turned to what seems like an objective measure of quality: global university rankings. Unfortunately, this chase is a costly illusion, and taxpayers are footing the bill. In the past few years, the goalposts have shifted from pure research output to “sustainability” and “societal impact,” largely driven by commercial metrics such as the UK-based Times Higher Education (THE) Impact
The inter-Korean relationship, long defined by national division, offers the clearest mirror within East Asia for cross-strait relations. Yet even there, reunification language is breaking down. The South Korean government disclosed on Wednesday last week that North Korea’s constitutional revision in March had deleted references to reunification and added a territorial clause defining its border with South Korea. South Korea is also seriously debating whether national reunification with North Korea is still necessary. On April 27, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung marked the eighth anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration, the 2018 inter-Korean agreement in which the two Koreas pledged to
I wrote this before US President Donald Trump embarked on his uneventful state visit to China on Thursday. So, I shall confine my observations to the joint US-Philippine military exercise of April 20 through May 8, known collectively as “Balikatan 2026.” This year’s Balikatan was notable for its “firsts.” First, it was conducted primarily with Taiwan in mind, not the Philippines or even the South China Sea. It also showed that in the Pacific, America’s alliance network is still robust. Allies are enthusiastic about America’s renewed leadership in the region. Nine decades ago, in 1936, America had neither military strength
RSS