Taiwanese officials are poised to boycott next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, an official with knowledge of the matter said yesterday, citing concerns that China would slight Taiwan during the Games.
This year’s Winter Olympics are scheduled to open on Friday next week amid a diplomatic boycott by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, New Zealand, the UK and the US in response to China’s human rights abuses against Uighurs in Xinjiang and crackdowns on democracy advocates in Hong Kong.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that a Cabinet-appointed task force has determined that Taiwan’s delegation would abstain from the opening and closing ceremonies, and limit its role to looking after the nation’s athletes.
Photo: Reuters
The Ministry of Education is to announce the makeup of Taiwan’s team this week, the official said.
The task force, created by the Executive Yuan, the Ministry of Education and the Mainland Affairs Council, was concerned that the presence of a delegation would give legitimacy to diplomatic slights that Beijing is sure to make against Taiwan, the official said.
The Winter Games is the most significant platform for China to push its propaganda that Taiwan is a part of its sovereign territory, they said.
China has already made known that the order of national teams in the opening ceremony would be determined by a system based on the number and sequence of strokes in the characters that make up their name in simplified Chinese, the official said.
Taiwanese athletes would precede athletes from Hong Kong, which is intended to give credence to Beijing’s claims that Taiwan is Chinese territory, they said.
Taiwan would also be referred to as “Chinese Taipei” in the ceremonies as part of Beijing’s campaign to denigrate the nation on the international stage, they added.
The nation’s intelligence community has said that Beijing intends to display pro-unification messages, refer to Taiwan as “Chinese Taipei” and prominently feature Taiwanese volunteers in its propaganda videos, the official said.
China had set a precedent by boycotting sports events hosted by Taiwan, including the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, in which its delegation of 72 athletes was absent from the opening ceremony, they said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the