The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned incidents in which signage supporting Taiwan was snatched from spectators watching badminton at the Paris Olympics, saying it contravened the spirit of the Games and freedom of speech.
The incident took place during the men’s doubles match on Friday, when Taiwan’s Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) advanced to the final after beating Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
A unidentified man in a pink shirt was seen seizing the sign from a female spectator — later identified as Yang Chih-yun (楊芷芸), a Taiwanese studying in France — before being removed from the stands by security. The sign was cut out in the shape of Taiwan proper and said: “Go Taiwan” in Mandarin.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The “malicious individual” who forcibly took the sign has “seriously violated the cultural spirit of the Olympic Games, showed contempt for the rules and harmed freedom of speech,” the ministry said.
Representative to France Francois Wu (吳志中) has met with Yang and his office would provide legal assistance if she wants to press charges, the ministry said.
The International Olympic Committee’s Web site says regulations stipulate that spectators are forbidden from carrying flags that do not legally represent any participating country, nor can they carry a flag or banner that is more than 2m by 1m.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Although the Republic of China (ROC) flag is prohibited, there is no explicit ban on items that have the word “Taiwan” written on them, the Taipei Representative Office in France said.
Yang said her sign was in line with Olympic rules.
“Taiwan will not be defeated by political ... pressure,” she said.
Wu had given her Formosan blue magpie-themed memorabilia and a pin bearing a bubble tea design during their meeting earlier that day, she added.
Yang said she was reminded by security staff at the entrance that posters or banners with certain slogans are prohibited from being carried in, but still let her through because hers did not have the ROC flag on them.
Taiwanese athletes compete in the Olympics under the name “Chinese Taipei.”
Yang said whenever she cheered “Taiwan go” during the match, the man in the pink shirt shouted “Chinese Taipei” or “Taipei team.”
In a separate incident during the same game, an Olympics staff member was “overzealous” in removing a green towel that read “Taiwan In,” the ministry said adding that it has instructed officials to issue a complaint to the Paris Games’ organizing committee.
The towel was a celebratory souvenir sold after Lee and Wang won gold in the men’s doubles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“All parties are urged to abide by the Olympics’ spirit of excellence, friendship and respect, the International Olympics Committee’s regulations, and the host nation’s laws,” the ministry said. “Spectators should remain peaceful, reasonable and respectful to others.”
In yet another incident on Friday, two Reuters journalists saw a spectator with a green banner reading “Taiwan go for it” being bodily removed up a staircase, shouting, while Taiwanese shuttler Chou Tien-chen (周天成) was playing.
The ministry also condemned their removal.
Badminton is a hugely popular sport in Taiwan and China, and both sets of supporters have been out in full force at the Paris Olympics.
While some Taiwanese have stuck to holding up the nation’s official Olympic flag, many in the crowd have roared “Taiwan” when players such as former world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) have taken to the court.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan
RSS