Taking legal action against British writer J.K. Rowling under the UK’s anti-discrimination laws is a possible option for Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷), and the government should not hesitate to stop radical gender discrimination, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) yesterday, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators also criticized Rowling for her critical comments of Lin.
Lin and Algerian Imane Khelif, also a boxer, are at the center of a row over their participation in the Paris Olympics after previously being disqualified from last year’s World Championships in New Delhi.
Both were cleared to fight in Paris.
Photo: AP
“What will it take to end this insanity? A female boxer left with life-altering injuries? A female boxer killed?” Rowling wrote on X on Friday.
Wang said that Lin’s eligibility to participate in the 2022 Asian Games in China and the Paris Olympics was approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as Paris Games and Asian Games organizers.
It is unthinkable that Lin still faces verbal abuse and Internet bullying, Wang said.
No Taiwanese should stand by seeing Lin having to shoulder the tremendous stress of participating in a prestigious international competition while being the subject of Rowling’s abuse and bullying, he added.
Should Lin be willing to take legal action against Rowling, “we will demand that the government fully assist her in such endeavors and be her shield,” he said.
Lin started boxing due to a desire to protect her mother, Wang said, adding that Taiwanese are willing to give her all the encouragement and backing she needs.
Taking legal action would also deter countries with radical gender discrimination from bullying or being prejudiced against Asian athletes, he said.
KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) said that Rowling should be more capable than others at discerning the truth and reality of issues, and yet she has not sought the truth among falsehoods.
She has gone against the spirit of her Harry Potter series and has instead chosen to be like Muggles and Voldemort, only willing to believe in themselves and ignoring love and truth, Hsu said.
KMT Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽) said Rowling’s comments serve only to incite confrontation and misunderstanding, and are not conducive to the Olympic spirit.
Sports fans at a Taipei bar on Friday were also supportive of Lin, who won a fight against Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova.
“She hasn’t done anything wrong, that’s the way she is — it’s unnecessary to attack her appearance,” computer engineer Hannah Huang said.
Tracy Wu, who said that she does not watch boxing, but has followed the controversy, attributed the online hatred to Lin being the top seed.
“Everyone feels particularly threatened by her, so that may be why they attack her,” Wu said.
Separately, IOC president Thomas Bach told a conference in Paris that the “hate speech” directed at Lin and Khelif was “totally unacceptable.”
“We will not take part in a politically motivated ... cultural war,” Bach said.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams has warned against turning the row into a “witch hunt.”
“I should make this absolutely clear to everyone: This is not a transgender issue. These women have been competing in competitions for many years,” he said. “This involves real people and we’re talking about real people’s lives here.”
Additional reporting by AP and AFP
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS