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.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
Democratic Progressive Party caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu, front, grabs the pennant in a dragon boat race hosted by Qu Yuan Temple in the Shuanghsi River in Taipei’s Beitou District yesterday.