Three US Representatives on Thursday urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to stop requesting Taiwan to join the Olympic Games using the name Chinese Taipei (中華台北) in a letter addressed to committee president Thomas Bach.
Not only do Taiwanese athletes have to compete under the name “Chinese Taipei,” but Taiwan’s national flag and national anthem are also barred as the committee “capitulated to pressure from communist China,” US representatives Tom Tiffany, Andy Ogles and Chris Smith said in the letter.
“This is not just unfair, it violates the core tenets of the Olympic Charter,” they said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The charter states: “Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination,” and “sport occurs within the framework of society, sports organisations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality.”
Taiwan “has never been under the control of the People’s Republic of China, or part of its territory for even a single day,” they said.
However, Taiwan is unable to be called by its own name while athletes from Puerto Rico and Bermuda do not have to compete as territories of the US or the UK respectively, they said.
Puerto Rico and Bermuda are allowed to use their own flags at the opening ceremony and during medal award presentations, they added.
The US lawmakers described the treatment as “uniquely irrational Taiwan-specific restrictions,” adding that there have been reports of Taiwanese fans being banned from waving national flags at Olympic venues.
“This makes no sense,” they said.
They called on Bach and other IOC officials to “resist China’s persistent bullying and consider sweeping away these discriminatory restraints on Taiwan’s athletes and supporters before the Paris Summer Games begin later this year.”
The Games are to take place from July 26 to Aug. 11.
After Taiwan left the UN in 1971, its Olympic committee and other sports associations were excluded from the IOC and various international sports organizations due to Beijing’s oppression, Taiwan’s Olympic committee said.
The title of Taiwan’s national team, and its flag and emblem, in the Games were approved and recognized by the IOC according to an agreement it reached with Taiwan’s Olympic committee in 1981 in Lausanne, Switzerland, it said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS