The departure last week of a Taiwan-based basketball team to Suzhou may have shocked the sports community here, but the exodus of athletes and coaches to China has been going on for nearly a decade.
Sina, a Taiwan-based basketball team, joined China's national basketball league in early September. The team's decision to participate in China's national league has caused controversy in Taiwan, since it is the first Taiwan-based team to join the league.
It was also trying to incorporate "Taiwan" or "Taipei" into its team name, which the Taiwan government thought would downgrade Taiwan's national dignity.
Even before Sina's dispute with the government, since the early 1990s there have been as many as nine Taiwanese professional baseball coaches working for Tianjin and Beijing teams and four basketball players participating in China's national league, all without the permission of the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (NCPFS).
Under the table
The NCPFS and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) had tried to prevent Sina from using the name "Taiwan" or "Taipei" as China had requested, by envoking the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area. The statute dictates that Taiwan's organizations, institutions and individuals are not allowed to participate in China's organizations, institutions or individuals without permission from supervising government departments.
China has since dropped the request to use the name
The NCPFS, Taiwan's highest ranking government department in charge of sports affairs, however, has ignored the trend of cross-strait sports exchanges and avoided establishing guidelines for conducting these exchanges.
Lee Chih-cheng (李志成), NCPFS' official spokesperson for the Sina case, said that the council has not be in place long enough to conduct these exchanges.
"The NCPFS was only established about three years ago, but we have tried our best to catch up. New regulations will allow Taiwanese athletes to participate in commercial competition in China, such as its basketball league, " Lee said.
Cheng Chih-long (鄭志龍), a professional basketball player who has played for the Shanghai and Shaanxi basketball teams in China's national league since 1999, warned that Sina's departure is just one example of a Taiwan sports team trying to survive.
"The government should not look at Sina's case as a special case. There will be more professional athletes seeking careers in China," Cheng said.
Struggling to survive
Before the team's departure, Sina's owner, Daniel Chiang (
Compared to China, which just won its bid to host the 2008 Olympics and has a government that supports sports programs and athletes who have won numerous championships in international competitions, sport in Taiwan has been largely ignored. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Taiwan won five medals while China won 59.
Wang Li-pin (王立彬), a professional basketball coach from China, said that China takes care of its athletes and promotes competition.
Game-fixing scandal
In Taiwan, baseball is one of the few sports that is well-established. Taiwan's national baseball team won a bronze medal in the 1998 Seoul Olympics and the country currently has two professional baseball leagues.
The nation's first professional sports league was a baseball league, and was established in 1990, followed by a basketball league in 1994.
The baseball league, however, was involved in a game-fixing scandal in 1997, which disappointed many sports fans and hurt the status of Taiwan's professional sports leagues.
The basketball league collapsed in 1999 for commercial reasons, and the two baseball leagues are considering a merger since both are experiencing low ticket sales.
While baseball is no longer as popular as it used to be in Taiwan, a professional baseball coach said the sport is gaining interest in China.
Lin Kuang-hung (
"The Chinese government has been aggressive developing sport. They can hire professional coaches from any country, including Taiwan, to develop their baseball league. Why can't our government do things like this?" Lin asked.
Cheng emphasized that Taiwan should cooperate with China to promote sport in Taiwan and argued that the NCPFS has been very conservative on the cross-strait exchange issue.
Cross-strait cooperation
"Sports activities are growing in China. I would completely support cross-strait sports cooperation, under the condition that it would not downgrade Taiwan's national dignity," Cheng said.
Cheng added that the NCPFS should propose how to best promote sport in Taiwan and draw up a complete blueprint for cooperating with China, rather than just regulate cross-strait sports exchanges.
Chang Chien-chun (
"Taiwan is a free and democratic country. No one can stop our athletes from going anywhere, but this is not the case in China," Chang said.
Indeed, there have been few professional athletes from China participating in Taiwan's professional sports and those who have usually came to Taiwan through a third country such as Japan or the US.
Lin, the baseball coach, said that China's baseball coaches began considering hiring Taiwanese players for China's Olympic team for the 2008 Olympics immediately after China was announced as the host on July 13.
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