A group of Taiwanese athletes taking part in the 2005 World Masters Games in Canada protested strongly Friday against the host country's decision to ban the appearance of the Republic of China (ROC) flag for fear of Beijing.
The games are being held July 22-31 in the Canadian city of Edmonton. The display of the ROC flag by the Taiwanese athletes during the opening parade drew a protest from Beijing, which prompted the terrified host to ban the appearance of the flag in its closing ceremony.
Calling the move an infringement of the freedom of speech, the Taiwan athletes pointed out that displaying the ROC flag was not a problem in the past three such games Taiwan has taken part in.
They said it is shameful of Canada, as a free country, to yield to China's pressure and ban Taiwanese athletes from displaying their country's flag.
As the World Masters Games is not a political activity, it should not be subject to any government interference, they added.
However, a spokesman for the games claimed that the host country has the right to set the rules regarding the display of flags and that it was a "mistake" of the organizer to allow the Taiwan athletes to show the ROC flag in the opening ceremony.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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