The government’s plan to file a lawsuit in a court in China to appeal taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun’s (楊淑君) disqualification was misguided and unlikely to gain the desired result, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday.
The World Taekwondo Federation’s (WTF) controversial decision to disqualify Yang should be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which the DPP caucus said would provide a more balanced ruling.
Lee and Li Attorneys at Law (理律法律事務所), retained by the government to handle legal matters related to Yang’s disqualification during an Asian Games event last week, said on Monday that it would be more appropriate to sue a WTF official for slander and forgery in a Guangzhou court.
Sung Yao-ming (宋耀明), a lawyer with the law firm, voiced concerns that international arbitration would take months, while filing the lawsuit directly in Guangzhou would expedite the process. He also said an extended legal process could prevent Taiwanese taekwondo athletes from participating in the 2012 Olympics.
However, DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) raised fears that a ruling from a Chinese court could be subject to political bias because China’s judicial system was “not impartial.”
WTF secretary-general Yang Jin-suk had no obligation to show up in the Guangzhou court, Chai said, adding: “Then the entire case will likely just disappear. [Filing] it there is the wrong move.”
Even if the law firm were to file the case in China, DPP lawmakers said the lawsuit would be incomplete without including Asian Taekwondo Union (ATU) vice president Zhao Lei (趙磊), a Chinese national who initially called into question the electronic sensors on Yang Shu-chun’s socks during a match.
WTF officials upheld Zhao’s allegations that Yang Shu-chun had two extra sensory pads on the back of her socks, but Taiwan’s government, citing video evidence, has disputed the charges.
“Zhao certainly has the motive, as the Chinese contender [Wu Jingyu (吳靜鈺)] was one of his most favored players. He was the instigator of the entire episode,” DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said that based on information confirmed by the government, Zhao had spoken against the WTF decision in support of Yang during two closed-door meetings on the disciplinary process last week.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
‘A SERIOUS THREAT’: Japan has expressed grave concern over the Strait’s security over the years, which demonstrated Tokyo’s firm support for peace in the area, an official said China’s military drills around Taiwan are “incompatible” with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday. “Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan,” Iwaya told Wang during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan are incompatible with this,” a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cited Iwaya as saying. The Foreign Ministers’ Meetings are a series of diplomatic
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
RSS