The spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Yang Yi (楊毅), said yesterday that both Zhongguo Taibei (中國台北, “Taipei, China”) and Zhonghua Taibei (中華台北, “Chinese Taipei”) are acceptable translations for the official Olympic designation of “Chinese Taipei,” thus threatening to raise tensions between China and Taiwan one month before the Olympics.
In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said the development was “a severe mistake,” and it would protest to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Yang said that although both translations were acceptable, the Beijing organizing committee (BOCOG) would use Zhonghua Taibei in printed materials and at all venues. But Yang added that the decision was not binding on any other Chinese group, organization or individual.
In Taipei, MAC Vice Chairman Chang Liang-jen (張良任) said “Chinese Taipei” was the name that the Olympic committees of both sides agreed on in 1989 and that the government was firmly opposed to the name “Taipei, China.”
Chang said that in 1989, when the then chair of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), met Chinese Olympic Committee representatives, the two parties agreed that the translation of “Chinese Taipei” would be Zhonghua Taibei.
SARKOZY SAYS OUI
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games next month, his office said yesterday.
Sarkozy told Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) he would go to Beijing during a meeting on the sidelines of the G8 summit.
Sarkozy had threatened to boycott the Olympic opening gala following a Chinese crackdown in Tibet in March that sparked international outrage, leading to speculation that some world leaders might shun the Games.
“The head of state consulted all of his European counterparts and, with their agreement, will attend the opening ceremony in his double capacity as president of France and as president of the European Union,” the statement said.
Sarkozy said earlier that his decision on whether to attend the ceremony would hinge on progress in talks between China and the Dalai Lama.
In France, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) accused Sarkozy of surrendering to China.
“I am disappointed and bitter. Until the last moment, I kept hoping he would not dare” attend the ceremony, RSF secretary-general Robert Menard said.
“This is a surrender in the middle of battle, an abandonment of all the commitments he made as a candidate and all of the values our country embodies,” Menard said.
He said Sarkozy’s decision was a “stab in the back” to Chinese dissidents, who had been “abandoned” by France.
RSF, which spearheaded protests during the Olympic torch’s global relay, said it was calling for protests outside Chinese embassies worldwide on Aug. 8 and would travel to China to demonstrate in defiance of a ban.
During his meeting with Hu, Sarkozy expressed France’s desire to boost its strategic partnership with China “in all its dimensions” and reiterated French support for Beijing following the May earthquake in Sichuan Province.
French officials said the meeting between Sarkozy and Hu went “extremely well” and the strategic partnership between France and China was “back on track once again.”
Xinhua news agency reported yesterday that tourists would be banned from visiting Beijing’s prestigious Peking University during the Olympics.
The top university will be closed to visitors from July 20 to Sept. 18, Xinhua reported.
The ban will be imposed because of security concerns, Xinhua said, quoting the deputy head of the university’s campus security department.
Teachers, students and staff will have to show identity cards or passes issued by the university to get onto the campus.
The campus, where Olympic and Paralympic table tennis events will be held, is a huge tourist attraction, and every summer thousands of parents take their children there to motivate them to do well in their studies, Xinhua said.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS