China yesterday celebrated one of its best Olympic performances, while some supporters declared China the true winners, if medals won by Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan were included.
“We are number one out of sovereign countries,” read one comment with more than 1,300 likes on Sina Weibo.
Many similar posts included images of an adjusted medal table with medals won by Hong Kong and Taiwan added to the Chinese total.
Photo: Reuters
Since Taiwan’s Olympic debut in 1956, its athletes have competed as “Formosa,” “Taiwan,” “the Republic of China,” and since 1984 as “Chinese Taipei.”
Hong Kong competes separately from China.
Team China racked up 40 gold medals in Paris, level with the US, in their best performance at an overseas Olympics, but it trailed its geopolitical rival in the overall medal count.
China last beat the US in the gold medal count at the Beijing Games in 2008.
State media outlet the Beijing Daily linked China’s Olympic success to broader national development.
China had wanted gold medals in the past to “prove to the world ‘we can do it,’” but its athletes now have “confidence and vigor,” which it attributed to “the dual miracles of China’s rapid development and long-term social stability,” the newspaper said.
The state-run Global Times wrote that China’s successes “should not be viewed in isolation.”
“This shift itself is a reflection of an unstoppable historical trend,” it said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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