The government on Friday rebuked China for using the Beijing Winter Olympics to assert its claims of sovereignty over Taiwan, saying that China had “cast a shadow” over the peaceful spirit of the event to spread propaganda.
Yan Jiarong (嚴家蓉), a spokeswoman for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), on Thursday spoke of China’s position regarding Taiwan at a news conference attended by International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesman Mark Adams.
“What I want to say is that there is only one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. This is a widely recognized principle of international relations and a consensus in international society,” the former UN envoy said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Yan also responded similarly to questions concerning Xinjiang, calling reports about forced labor camps in the region “a lie” told by “some groups with malicious intentions.”
In Taipei, the Mainland Affairs Council on Friday said that “the people of Taiwan firmly oppose” Beijing’s “one China” principle.
“The Republic of China is a sovereign state, and Taiwan has never been part of the People’s Republic of China,” the council said, adding that it condemned China for interfering with international sports activities by asserting its politics.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also rejected Yan’s claims as untrue and said that the remarks “undermined the integrity of Taiwan’s sovereignty.”
The ministry also criticized China for spreading “inappropriate” political propaganda at the Olympics, saying that Beijing had breached the rule of political neutrality enshrined in the Olympic Charter.
“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas,” the charter says.
Yan’s comments have also caused concern for IOC president Thomas Bach, who sidestepped questions about Xinjiang at the Games’ opening ceremony, citing political neutrality.
“We were in touch with BOCOG immediately after this press conference,” the New York Times cited Bach as saying on Thursday. “Both organizations, BOCOG and the IOC, have restated the unequivocal commitment to remain politically neutral, as it is required by the Olympic Charter.”
Yan’s remarks about Taiwan, which has four athletes at the Games, comes as China steps up efforts to limit the nation’s participation in international events and affairs.
The four athletes took part in the Games’ opening ceremony after the team said it had received “several notices” by the IOC urging them to attend the opening and closing ceremonies.
Last month, Taiwan initially said that its athletes would not attend due to delayed flights and China’s COVID-19 prevention measures.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s