The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday lambasted Chinese players at the World Cyber Games in Seattle for roughing up Taiwanese contestants, saying that violence could only increase Taiwan's aversion toward Beijing.
Phoebe Yeh (葉非比), acting deputy director-general of the ministry's Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, said China's suppression of Taiwan had reached an "eccentric" level, with the international community witnessing the profanity and violence of Chinese players at the event.
She cautioned Taiwanese to remain alert when encountering Chinese competitors at international events.
Players are advised to contact the ministry's representative offices for assistance, she said.
Yeh said that Taiwanese player Liu You-chen (劉祐辰) won the bronze medal in the grand final of Project Gotham Racing 3 and displayed the Republic of China (ROC) flag during the award ceremony.
More than 10 Chinese gamers and Chinese media employees scrambled toward the stage to grab the flag,the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) reported.
After the ceremony, Chinese players confronted the Taiwanese contestants, requesting that they surrender Liu and calling Taiwanese players "sons of bitches," the report said.
The report said that Chinese players struck at the Taiwanese and tried to prevent them from taking their vehicle back to their hotel. Seattle police were called in to maintain order while the ministry's representative office in Seattle sent personnel to provide assistance.
The organizer dispatched a vehicle to transport the Taiwanese players back to their hotel, the report said.
Meanwhile, a pro-independence group yesterday called on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to speak up and defend the ROC in light of the incident.
The Southern Taiwan Society issued a statement calling on KMT politicians, including Ma, to show their loyalty to the ROC.
While the KMT claimed loyalty to the "national flag," the statement said that it did not have the courage to stand up to China when it humiliates the nation, the society said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday demanded an apology from Chinese President Hu Jintao (
"They [the Chinese participants] cursed our boys and called them `sons of bitches' because they were holding our national flag. Is that the way for the Chinese government to treat Taiwanese people while they continue saying they want to unite with us?" DPP Legislator Wang Sing-nan (
Wang Sing-nan and DPP Legislator Wang Tuoh (王拓) held a press conference at the caucus' office yesterday morning.
Wang Tuoh said they had not intended to respond to the incident, but they decided to do something after the caucus office phone lines were flooded with angry callers.
They invited lawmakers from the KMT and People First Party to join their condemnation of the Chinese government.
"This is a great chance for them to fight with us on the same issue," Wang Tuoh said.
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