Dear future hosts of the Olympic Games:
Four of the next five Olympics are scheduled to be held in democracies: Japan (Tokyo, this month); France (Paris, 2024); Italy (Milano Cortina, 2026); and the US (Los Angeles, 2028). Democratic nations are the top bidders for the 2030 Olympics, while Brisbane, Australia, is so far the only city being considered for the 2032 games.
As you might know, one of our democratic friends, Taiwan, is being relentlessly harassed by China’s authoritarian rulers, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It claims that Taiwan is a part of the People’s Republic of China, even though it is not and never has been. The CCP frequently threatens to take over Taiwan by force.
As part of its campaign of psychological and diplomatic warfare, the CCP has been using the Olympics as a tool to humiliate Taiwanese, to deny them of their basic rights, and to undermine their democracy. Flabbergastingly, we have let the CCP get away with it.
If you have been watching the horror show happening in Hong Kong for the past year, I think you will agree that there has never been a better time than now to collectively stand up to the CCP. We must ensure that Taiwan is treated with the dignity and respect that it deserves at the Olympics.
Due to the CCP’s pressure tactics, Taiwan is the only country banned from using its real name, its national flag, and its national anthem at the Olympics. For about 40 years, it has been forced to compete as “Chinese Taipei,” a country that does not exist and does not appear on any map.
This is disrespectful, discriminatory, ridiculous and just plain wrong.
Taiwan hosted the World University Games in 2017, and its athletes were banned from competing under their nation’s flag on their own soil. This was so glaringly unjust that athletes from Argentina protested during the closing ceremony by carrying Taiwanese flags to express solidarity with the host country.
Absurdly, English-language media guides for the event erased all references to “Taiwan” and instead referred to the country as “Chinese Taipei.” Guides included factually incorrect statements such as: “Chinese Taipei is a special island and its capital Taipei is a great place to experience Taipei’s culture.”
Taiwanese were so upset by all of this that they held a referendum in 2018 on whether Taiwan should stop competing as “Chinese Taipei” in international sporting events, and instead compete as Taiwan.
Days before the vote, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) threatened to ban Taiwan from Olympic competition if the referendum succeeded. Behind the scenes, the CCP, which has been given the 2022 Winter Olympics, was likely heaping pressure on the IOC to do its bidding.
Because the IOC interfered in the democratic process, Taiwanese did not have a fair choice. As a result, 55 percent of voters chose to maintain the status quo so that their country’s athletes would not be banned from the Olympics.
The main point is not that the referendum failed, but that a whopping 45 percent of voters felt so strongly about the issue — about maintaining their nation’s dignity — that they were willing to proceed with the name change even if it resulted in Taiwan being banned from the Olympics.
Most Taiwanese do not like their country being called “Chinese Taipei.” Scrapping that name is broadly supported and is not controversial. The only controversy stems from worries that athletes will be unfairly banned from competition.
Taiwanese should not have this threat continually hanging over their heads. It is not only unfair, it is also a violation of their basic rights.
Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his [or her] nationality.”
To ban Taiwanese from expressing their nationality is to deprive them of a human right. If we do not speak out against the IOC’s coercive and wrongheaded behavior, then we are being complicit in its human rights violations against Taiwanese.
As citizens of democratic countries, I hope you agree that no one — not the CCP, the IOC nor anyone else — should attempt to rename an entire country or dictate to its people what name, flag, or anthem they must use at the Olympics. This is something Taiwanese should decide on their own, without external interference.
I am calling on the National Olympic Committees in Japan, France, Italy, the US and elsewhere to make a joint statement expressing their support for Taiwan’s right to choose which name, flag, and anthem it uses in Olympic competition.
My hope, and the hope of more than 130,000 people who have signed an online petition I and others have created (https://www.change.org/let-taiwan-be-taiwan), is that Taiwan will be allowed to compete as Taiwan at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, which starts in a few weeks. If that unfortunately does not happen, please join us in continuing to press for Taiwan’s rights in Paris, Milano Cortina, Los Angeles and other future Olympic Games locations.
I look forward to a speedy and ethically courageous joint response.
Lindell Lucy is a master’s student at the Harvard Extension School, and teaches at a high school in Tokyo. He started the change.org petition to Thomas Bach and seven others.
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