As the world’s nations sailed the River Seine during the opening ceremony for the Olympics last month, Taiwan once again suffered the enduring humiliation of being the sole country forced to sail under a fictitious name and flag.
“Chinese Taipei” is not merely a fake place, but part of a strategic campaign by China to conquer Taiwan in the minds of the global public, forcing the international community to accept the fiction that China has authority over Taiwan, as I have written before in the Taipei Times (“Taiwan’s ‘Chinese Taipei’ problem,” May 22, page 8).
If Taiwanese wish to be seen as Taiwan, they must fight back and contest this blatant discrimination and cognitive warfare. While overt protests might be disrupted pre-emptively by the corrupt International Olympic Committee (IOC), other national teams have captured global attention with subtle and profound acts of protest.
In an inspiring anti-colonial protest, the Algerian team cast roses into the Seine under a bridge where French police threw hundreds of innocent Algerians to their deaths six decades ago. Palestine’s flagbearer drew attention for a shirt embroidered with outlines of bombs dropping onto children playing soccer, and a member of the Hong Kong delegation strategically raised his arm to block the “China,” appended to Hong Kong’s banner.
Many small nations have taken the opportunity on the world’s stage to raise their national profile. Mongolia enthralled the world this year with its viral uniforms blending traditional dress with modern uniforms, and who can forget Pita Taufatofua, the oiled up shirtless flagbearer who put Tonga on the map for the entire world?
Taiwan’s own rich history and diverse cultural influences include fashion and traditions with roots in Mongolia and Polynesia, yet it has failed to unleash the same fire as its fraternal Asian and Pacific Island nations.
As Taiwan cinched its first gold on Sunday, badminton duo Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) were forced to stand under a fake flag for the medal ceremony, even as the flag of the losing Chinese team was hoisted for the silver medal. Lee and Wang’s repeat gold is the pinnacle of athletic achievement, and rightly deserves celebration, but without the indignity of erasing their national identity.
What could memorialize their achievement more in the annals of history than a brilliant act of protest, reclaiming their dignity as Taiwanese? One of the most memorable Olympic moments of all time was the 1968 “black power protest” by Tommie Smith and John Carlos, a political statement remembered long beyond their athletic achievements.
Palestinian swimmers have caught eyeballs for temporary body tattoos — although Taiwanese athletes would likely be unable to compete with visible flag tattoos. What is stopping any athlete from discretely tattooing a flag or political slogan, and removing their shirt to display it during the medal ceremony?
“Chinese Taipei” has not remained confined to the Olympics. “Chinese Taipei creep” has led to the widespread adoption of the term in numerous contexts to refer to Taiwan, leading to the false impression that it is a real place or identity.
While international media have increasingly referred to the team as “Taiwan,” most sportscasters continue to use the false “Chinese Taipei” term. Most reporting has repeated the Chinese lie that the term is a compromise accepted by both sides. This is simply untrue; the colonial term was forced on the Taiwanese during the Martial Law period by the authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Unwilling to accept further national humiliation, several Taiwanese spectators in Paris have proudly displayed signs supporting Taiwan, including a young woman with a poster in the shape of Taiwan, who was subsequently assaulted by a Chinese spectator, and a man with a towel simply reading “Taiwan,” who was similarly assaulted by the IOC’s corrupt officials.
A notice prohibiting the Republic of China (ROC) national flag in Olympic venues, along with those of Russia and Belarus, has gone viral on social media. While some Taiwanese condemn the ROC flag for the human rights violations they endured under this flag, it is plainly wrong in the present day to associate the flag of the peaceful nation of Taiwan with those of Russia and Belarus, which are committing war crimes in Ukraine.
Despite these protests summoning international attention toward the issue, international media remain woefully misinformed. CNN’s account of the protesters falsely claims that Taiwan competed as the ROC until the 1970s, ignoring the years when Taiwan participated as “Taiwan” and “Formosa.” The Taiwanese diaspora and advocacy groups have shirked the opportunity to utilize racial justice frameworks to hold their media to account for such discriminatory portrayals.
Of course, in those years the authoritarian ROC government understood the importance of winning international visibility, and sent its delegation to Rome in 1960 with a banner proclaiming “Under Protest.”
One week remains of the Paris games, yet it remains to be seen if Taiwan will stand up and make its voice heard.
Sasha B. Chhabra is an analyst, commentator and media consultant on China’s foreign policy, Taiwanese politics and cross-strait affairs.
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