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
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