An assessment of whether Taiwan should participate in next year’s Winter Olympic Games in Beijing is on the cards, with lawmakers poised to pass a motion proposed by the New Power Party (NPP) that seeks action from the Executive Yuan after multiple countries have mulled diplomatic boycotts over allegations of human rights violations in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet.
China has never ceased its oppression of and military threats against Taiwan, the NPP caucus said in a written statement, adding that from 1991 to last year, 600 Taiwanese have disappeared in China for unknown reasons.
Beijing since last year has vowed to sanction “Taiwanese independence diehards,” the party said.
Photo: CNA
“The government should cautiously assess the safety of Taiwanese athletes if they are to compete in Beijing next year under strained cross-strait relations,” the NPP said. “As human rights advocates in Taiwan and abroad have called for countries around the world to follow the ‘no rights, no Games’ principle, we urge the Executive Yuan to closely monitor whether other countries are to boycott the Winter Olympic Games and take appropriate action.”
The European Parliament in July passed a resolution asking EU officials to decline invitations to attend the Winter Olympics unless the human rights situations in Hong Kong and among Uighur Muslims improves, the NPP said.
China denies all accusations of abuses in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang.
In February, the Canadian House of Commons voted 266-0 over a motion calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the Winter Olympics from Beijing if the inhuman treatment of Uighurs continues, the NPP said.
In a letter to the IOC last month, US Senator Marco Rubio and US Representative Chris Smith urged it to postpone the Games and bar the Chinese team from participating, and that the “IOC has a moral obligation to reject the People’s Republic of China’s participation in the Games.”
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi in May called for a diplomatic boycott of the Games, saying that the moral authority of heads of state would be questioned if they were to travel to China in light of an ongoing “genocide” in Xinjiang.
Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) yesterday ruled that the NPP’s motion be negotiated among legislators before it is voted on at the second reading.
It would not require a vote at the third reading.
In other news, NPP lawmakers said that they disagree with the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) decision to boycott a review of the government’s budget for next year, saying that it would be an imperfect way to oversee spending.
The KMT on Monday halted a review of the budget in all legislative committees after accusing the Executive Yuan of contravening the principle of administrative neutrality by using public funds to campaign against referendums set for Dec.18.
“The right way to oversee government spending is to complete the review of the budget before the constitutional deadline,” NPP Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said, adding that government agencies cannot operate without funding and a boycott would not change that.
“Referendums are for people to express their opinions and people should make informed decisions based on the facts,” Wang said. “The government should not mobilize people to vote in the referendums and operations at the Legislative Yuan should not be disrupted by the referendums, either.”
NPP deputy caucus whip Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said that the government should remain neutral in regards to the referendums, adding that government agencies, such as the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Council of Agriculture, should provide accurate information so that voters can make the right decisions at the polls.
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