An initiative undertaken by Kainan University students yesterday to decorate their campus with Republic of China (ROC) national flags led to a dramatic reaction from a Chinese basketball team, which decided to withdraw from a game it was scheduled to play against a side from Mongolia yesterday afternoon.
Kainan University was the host of this year’s Asian University Basketball Championship, being held in Taoyuan County. Hundreds of ROC national flags were visible from the campus’ parking lots all the way to the bleachers. Upon seeing the flags, a bus carrying the Chinese team left abruptly and the team withdrew.
“We decided to bring in more national flags as a protest against the tournament organizers because we are not satisfied with the way they handled the incident yesterday [Thursday],” said a Kainan University student who declined to be named. “I don’t understand why they stopped us from hanging up our national flags.”
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The student was referring to the incident on Thursday in which spectators were asked to fold up the ROC national flag they were waving at a university basketball game in Taoyuan County in the latest controversy over the display of the flag at international sporting events.
The incident took place when officials of the Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (CTUSF), the organizer, asked three Kainan University students to take down their meter-high ROC flag at a game between Taiwan University All-Stars and China’s Tianjin Polytechnic University, saying that it was because of a “tacit understanding” with China.
The move immediately sparked outrage from both the students and opposition party lawmakers, who slammed the gesture as “unreasonable” and “disappointing.”
“I’m only half Taiwanese, but whenever I go to international competitions, I always bring the Taiwanese flag,” said Chong Nian-chu (塚念祖), a first-year accounting student at the university. “This competition took place in Taiwan and in our school’s own gymnasium. Why was [I] not allowed to do so?”
Adding that he was also half Japanese, Chong said his intention was originally to express his support for the Taiwanese team. Despite having his flag taken down, Chong insisted that he “definitely had the right” to wave Taiwan’s national symbol.
The week-long competition follows the “Chinese Taipei formula” set up by the International Olympic Committee in 1981.
Under the formula, Taiwanese teams must participate in sporting events under the name “Chinese Taipei” and organizers are not allowed to hang ROC national flags at sporting venues. However, the regulations do not cover spectators.
Information suggests the Chinese team was ready to stop the game and lodge a protest when the three students started to hold up the flag near the end of the third quarter.
The action was promptly stopped by head referee Lee Hung-chi (李鴻棋).
“We didn’t want to wait until the other team protested to dissuade the students. It was done to avoid any unexpected problems,” Lee said.
He later attempted to downplay the incident, saying that he had only “advised” the students to take down the flag because it was getting in the way of other spectators trying to watch the game. Yet picture evidence showed that the flag was held up in the last row of bleachers, well behind any other spectators.
Unconvinced by Lee’s explanation, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) questioned why Lee “was so afraid of China.”
“It’s completely natural -behavior for the public to wave their own national flag and cheer for their national team at an international competition,” she said, adding that the referee’s behavior was likely influenced by the “continued abandonment of [Taiwan’s] sovereignty by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.”
Chen Kuo-yi (陳國儀), the -secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, also suggested that Lee could have misread the regulations. He called Lee’s actions “improper” and that Lee’s handling of the incident was incorrect.
“Unless these [regulations] are explicitly written on the tickets of the event or publicly told to spectators, organizers cannot prevent them from holding the national flag in the bleachers,” he said.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Sports Affairs Council said it was a “pity” to learn of the action taken by the officials, describing the handling of the incident by the CTUSF as inappropriate and that it had misinterpreted the “Chinese Taipei” formula.
Vice Minister of Education Lin Tsong-ming (林聰明) said yesterday that although the ministry respects the event organizers, the organizers cannot stop the audience from holding or -waving the national flag unless tickets to the games clearly state that national flags are banned.
“As far as we know, the organizers did not sell any tickets to the championship,” Lin said.
Lin said that the ministry sent an official document to schools yesterday banning them from removing the national flag because of Chinese visitors.
The ministry will punish schools that remove national flags or cancel the singing of the national anthem because of the -presence of Chinese visitors, he said, adding that cross-strait exchanges must be conducted under a principle of equality.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG, CNA AND STAFF WRITER
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
Taiwan is gearing up to celebrate the New Year at events across the country, headlined by the annual countdown and Taipei 101 fireworks display at midnight. Many of the events are to be livesteamed online. See below for lineups and links: Taipei Taipei’s New Year’s Party 2026 is to begin at 7pm and run until 1am, with the theme “Sailing to the Future.” South Korean girl group KARA is headlining the concert at Taipei City Hall Plaza, with additional performances by Amber An (安心亞), Nick Chou (周湯豪), hip-hop trio Nine One One (玖壹壹), Bii (畢書盡), girl group Genblue (幻藍小熊) and more. The festivities are to
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
RSS