Taiwanese speedskater Huang Yu-ting (黃郁婷) leading Taiwanese athletes as a flagbearer at the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony has further upset the public and politicians in Taiwan, as she was branded a “disgrace” for “surrendering” after posting photos of herself practicing in China’s national team jersey.
“Taiwan’s Olympic athletes had in the past always worn our national uniform with pride and patriotism. We cannot accept Huang saying there is no issue of nationality in sports to explain her action,” retired army general Yu Pei-chen (于北辰) said yesterday.
“The crucial matter is that Huang is in Beijing to represent our country, just as all athletes represent their own countries,” the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) official added.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee via CNA
“Huang’s action amounted to surrendering and kowtowing to China, and not identifying with her Taiwan nationality. She has no sense of her own country or who the enemy state is,” Yu said.
He also criticized the Sports Administration, the Ministry of Education and the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, saying that it was negligent to permit it.
Yu said it was unacceptable for an athlete to not know the importance of representing her country at the Olympics.
He also spoke of the “arrogance and disdain” of sports officials who ignored the public outcry by selecting Huang to be the national team’s flagbearer for Friday’s opening ceremony in Beijing, which was televised around the world.
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator and political commentator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) yesterday accused government agencies of failure at crisis management, saying that he and others had before Friday’s opening ceremony asked President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to replace Huang.
“President Tsai must have the courage to make this call,” Lin said.
“Huang being selected as a flagbearer at the opening ceremony has become a disgrace for Taiwan,” he said, adding that the story is atracting attention in Japan.
He also said that because Tsai is conscious of her image in the international sports community that it does not make sense for her to ignore the Huang controversy.
“Ministry of Education officials supposedly spoke to Huang on behalf of President Tsai about this controversy, then they glossed over what happened by saying she apologized,” Lin said.
“But we did not hear her apology ... then we see sports officials ignoring Taiwan’s public concerns and they still assigned Huang to be a flagbearer,” he wrote.
“Sports officials played dumb and spoke nonsense,” Lin wrote.
People have also discovered promotional materials showing Huang and her father endorsing Chinese inline skating manufacturer Skating Start.
People on social media have questioned whether Huang and her father, who is an inline speedskating coach, have a business relationship with Skating Start or are using the Olympics for personal gain in China.
DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) also spoke about the controversy.
“For representing our country at the Olympics, how can Huang say there should be no issue of nationality in sports? She is being evasive, working to mislead people with such language,” the legislator said.
“Huang claimed that she exchanged uniforms as gifts between friends. Would her Chinese counterpart have the courage to post such photographs on Instagram or TikTok?” she said.
Other commenters said that Huang is old enough at 33 to understand the political issues involved when representing Taiwan abroad, having won medals at major sporting events such as the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
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