The government on Saturday drew sharp criticism for allowing Taiwanese speedskater Huang Yu-ting (黃郁婷) to act as the national team’s flagbearer during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics following a controversy over Huang wearing the Chinese national team uniform during practice.
Huang on Wednesday last week said the uniform was a gift from a friend on the Chinese national team, and insisted that there is “no nationality in the world of sports.”
“Every athlete is a friend when we are not competing against each other,” she added.
Retired army general Yu Pei-chen (于北辰), a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, said that Olympic uniforms symbolize national pride and patriotism, and Huang’s donning of another country’s uniform ahead of the Games demonstrated a lack of such values.
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator and political commentator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) said that retaining Huang as the national flagbearer after the controversy was “a disgrace for Taiwan,” while DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) rejected Huang’s explanation that politics is separate from sports.
Critics also flooded a Facebook post by Huang thanking the Sports Administration and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for their support, telling Huang that she should be representing China instead of Taiwan at the Games, as that was where her heart appeared to be.
Huang cannot possibly be oblivious to heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait, with Chinese military aircraft flying threateningly close to Taiwan on a nearly weekly basis.
As an athlete, she must also be aware of the international boycott against the Beijing Games because of China’s innumerable human rights abuses, and as a Taiwanese she must be aware of the many Taiwanese, such as democracy activist Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who have been imprisoned without a fair trial in China. On Oct. 15, 2020, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said that 48 Taiwanese were believed to be in custody in China after they went missing between 2016 and 2019.
China does not recognize anyone’s human rights, nor does it recognize the sovereignty of the Republic of China (Taiwan), making it dangerous for Taiwanese to travel there.
For Huang to post online a video of herself wearing a Chinese sports uniform ahead of the Olympics is a severe lapse of judgement — and for the Sports Administration to retain her as the national team’s flag bearer is an even greater lapse of judgement, which calls for disciplinary action.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on Jan. 26 referred to Taiwan’s team as zhongguo taibei (中國台北, “Taipei, China”) instead of its official Olympic title of zhonghua taibei (中華台北, “Chinese Taipei”) to assert its “sovereignty claims” over Taiwan, drawing a protest from Taiwanese officials.
The Sports Administration had said it would boycott the Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies like other countries, but changed its position after receiving notices from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for cooperation. Given its earlier position on the boycott, as well as the TAO’s slight against the national team, the Sports Administration should have been well aware of the controversy that would be caused by having Huang represent Team Taiwan at the opening ceremony.
Chinese had a field day with the choice of Huang as flagbearer, as it seemingly cemented their claims that Taiwanese are Chinese, and therefore Taiwan’s team is a part of China’s team. How can Taiwanese athletes feel proud of their victories under such circumstances?
The government must investigate the decisionmaking process by which Huang was retained as the flag bearer, stand up to the IOC and not be bullied into attendance at an Olympic event being hosted by a country seen by the world as unfit for the role.
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