The Cross-Straits Sports Exchange Seminar on Tuesday focused on how Taiwan and China are preparing their athletes for the Tokyo Olympic Games in July, Ministry of Education officials said, adding that neither side addressed whether Beijing should be allowed to hold the Winter Olympics next year.
The annual seminar — over which Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (CTOC) president Lin Hong-dow (林鴻道) and Chinese Olympic Committee president Gou Zhongwen (苟仲文) presided — was held online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday reported that 180 organizations have called on governments to boycott the Winter Olympics due to mass incarceration of Uighurs and allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang, as well as other human rights violations by China.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The Chinese Olympic Committee reportedly told the CTOC that Taiwan should continue to participate under the title “Chinese Taipei.”
The Chinese Olympic Committee also rejected a request to allow representatives from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) to attend the online seminar.
Sports Administration International and Cross-Strait Sports Division Director Hsu Hsiu-ling (許秀玲) said the seminar was a routine meeting that Olympic Committee leaders and staff members should attend.
MAC officials had never attended the meeting, she said.
The seminar focused on preparing athletes for the Tokyo Games and did not touch on issues related to the Winter Olympics next year, she added.
Olympic committees in Taiwan and China have had regular dialogue on sports-related affairs since 1997, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said on the sidelines of a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee.
“MAC Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) has indeed reminded me that the meeting should avoid political issues, given the ‘status quo’ of cross-strait relations, and focus on discussions of sports affairs,” Pan said.
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