The torch relay for next year's Summer Olympics will not go through Taiwan after Taiwanese and Chinese officials reached a dead end in negotiations on the route, international and Taiwan Olympic officials said yesterday.
The announcements put an end to a five-month saga that began when Beijing announced in April its planned route for the torch relay to enter Taiwan from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam before heading on to Hong Kong.
Taipei rejected the planned route at the time on the grounds that it downgraded Taiwan's status as a sovereign state.
Negotiations on finding a way out of the torch impasse began in the spring, but they have now ended, the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, said.
A "solution between the two has not been found," the e-mail said. "The route will now have to go ahead without a stop in Chinese Taipei."
"Chinese Taipei" is a term often used internationally for Taiwan or its sports teams.
In Taipei, Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee chairman Tsai Chen-wei (蔡辰威) said that the IOC had demanded a Sept. 20 cutoff date for negotiations on the relay, and that with the deadline having passed, Taiwan could not be on the route.
"It's impossible to continue [the negotiations]," Tsai said. "There will be no time to prepare for the torch relay."
Mainland Affairs Council chairman Chen Ming-tong (
Chen said that after Taiwan's rejection of the torch route announced by Beijing in April, "the International Olympic Committee [IOC] asked us to restart the negotiations on the torch issue in a letter dated July 18."
The IOC originally set Aug. 15 as the negotiation deadline, Chen said. However, as talks only began on Aug. 11, the IOC extended the deadline to Aug. 31 following a request by Taipei, and further postponed it to 7am yesterday as requested by Beijing, Chen said.
"We finally reached a consensus on Aug. 29," Chen said.
In the Aug. 29 consensus both sides agreed to abide by the 1989 agreement signed by the two parties in Hong Kong, which confirmed that Taipei would be defined as an overseas city, and that the Aug. 26 torch route would remain unchanged, a copy of a fax sent by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) said.
"A day before Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee chairman Tsai Chen-wei departed for Beijing to sign the agreement, we were informed by Beijing via telephone of a new condition," Chen told the news conference.
Beijing's new condition, Chen said, was to include a consensus reached in February as part of the final agreement.
"The February consensus became invalid as we rejected the torch relay announced on April 26, and it was never discussed at all during the entire negotiation in August," Chen said.
The only difference between the February consensus and the August one, is the regulation on the use of flags, emblems and anthems.
Beijing demanded in April that the "Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee is responsible for coordinating all relevant parties to not use any flag, emblem, or anthem other than those [described by the IOC] during the torch relay," a copy of the February consensus read.
"The term `all relevant parties' is too broad -- we can only regulate the personnel involved in the torch relay, and no one else," Chen told reporters. "I regret the final result," he said.
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday called on the public to support the government's decision on the torch relay.
"I feel sorry about [the country not being included in the Olympic torch relay route], but there is a danger in the arrangement of the relay route. It might be misinterpreted by the world that Taiwan is part of China," Lu said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday also expressed regret over the outcome, saying that the lack of mutual trust between Taiwan and China was responsible.
"China should show more tolerance handling the issue, and the outcome may have been different if China and Taiwan had been more frank with each other and had mutual trust," Ma said.
If the Olympic torch came to Taiwan, it would be a big step forward for the nation to connect with the international community, Ma said, adding that he would have welcomed the torch carrying the national flag if it had passed through Taipei.
KMT legislative caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said both the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese government should bear responsibility for the failure to reach an agreement as they had failed to create a win-win situation.
Kuo said she suspected the DPP deliberately ensured negotiations with China failed so that its own UN torch relay plan would be in the full glare of the media spotlight.
She was referring to a DPP's plan to hold a round-the-island torch relay on Oct. 24 to promote its bid for UN membership under the name "Taiwan."
KMT Legislator Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄) said he was worried Taiwan will now be marginalized in the field of sports, following its diplomatic and economic marginalization in the international community.
"Taiwan won't be disciplined for [not receiving the Olympic torch] due to a lack of related IOC regulations, but the IOC might consider Taiwan as a trouble maker," said Huang, who won a silver medal for Taiwan in the taekwondo competition at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
DPP legislative caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said the Chinese government was solely to blame for the situation, not the DPP government.
The KMT should have strongly condemned China's ban on the appearance of Taiwan's sovereign symbols along the Olympic torch route, he said.
"Aren't the ROC national flag, the nation's title and national anthem the things the KMT worship? Why does the KMT now slam the DPP for defending the country's dignity represented in national flags and the like?" he said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) said China had set an appalling example of interference in sports by political power.
"Given China's insistence on the precondition [that banned Taiwan's sovereign symbols], Taiwan might as well turn down the Olympic torch relay plan," Lo said.
On the streets of Taipei, opinion was divided on the failure of the torch relay talks.
Shen Sung-hsu, a 44-year-old shipping company worker said China was to blame because it had dictated the torch route.
"The host does not necessarily have the right to decide where the torch will go," he said. "Taiwan should try to deal with the International Olympic Committee directly on this issue."
But Wang Feng-chen, a 34-year-old coffee shop manager, blamed the president for the torch impasse.
"He does not like China, so he stopped the torch from coming to Taiwan," she said.
Beijing organizers later yesterday confirmed they had received a letter from Taiwan on Thursday "unilaterally closing the doors on the talks" and another from the IOC saying the relay would have to go ahead without a stop in Taipei.
Jiang Xiaoyu (蔣效愚), executive vice president of the Beijing organizing committee, BOCOG, expressed "deep regret," but said that responsibility for the breakdown of negotiations lay entirely with Taiwan.
Jiang said Beijing had negotiated "sincerely and pragmatically," but Taiwan had repeatedly broken its promises and gone back on a written agreement to be included in the torch relay.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih and reuters
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
RSS