Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) has been lambasting the government for taking a knee-jerk anti-China stance, yet he seems to not have realized that he has become an unthinking, fawning spaniel that acts as the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mouthpiece on every issue.
As a national team athlete and the flagbearer for the Beijing Winter Games opening ceremony, speedskater Huang Yu-ting (黃郁婷) has been representing Taiwan at international competitions and benefiting from national training grants funded by taxpayers.
Regardless of an athlete’s performance at the Olympics, their country should at a minimum be able to count on them to perform their duty to their country. Wearing another country’s team uniform — especially when that country has voiced the ambition to annex Taiwan — and then posting the video online is, by any standard, an example of grave misconduct.
Even at domestic professional-level sports competitions, teams and their fans would never put up with athletes wearing another team’s uniform in public, and athletes would never risk their careers by doing such a thing.
Huang’s incident attracted criticism from the majority following a lively and open public discussion.
However, two weeks after the event — when the curtain had fallen on the Games, and with Huang having chosen to temporarily delay her return to Taiwan — Jaw started to accuse the government, throwing out remarks such as “mixing politics with sports” and “using the state apparatus to hunt down young athletes” in an attempt to sow confusion among the public.
The Sports Administration’s probe into Huang is merely an administrative investigation, and a far cry from “using the state apparatus” to “hunt down” Huang, such as by sentencing Huang under the Criminal Code, or sending her to a labor camp, as might occur in North Korea.
It is an investigation into a minor contravention, akin to government-funded medical students failing to complete compulsory service at a public medical institution after graduation, military school students withdrawing early from training, or military personnel retiring before completing their first term of military service.
When the government hands out penalties for contraventions of duties, it is acting according to laws and regulations.
To follow Jaw’s logic, Taiwan would wind up in complete mayhem and disarray if members of the military were allowed to wear the uniforms of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, or if police officers, whose duty it is to uphold social order, were allowed to wear the uniforms of the Chinese People’s Armed Police.
If Huang had been wearing a US or Japan team uniform, would Jaw still be voicing his approval, or would he be forced to eat his own words?
Fan Kang-chih is a university lecturer and holds a doctorate in law.
Translated by Rita Wang
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