The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Beijing a day after China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) referred to Taiwan’s Asian Winter Games athletes as representing Zhongguo Taibei (Taipei, China, 中國台北), instead of Zhonghua Taibei (Chinese Taipei, 中華台北).
The TAO at a routine news conference said that Chinese “welcome the Taipei, China team attending the 9th Asian Winter Games and congratulate Taipei, China athletes’ performance and achievements on the field.”
This year’s Asian Winter Games are being hosted in Harbin, China.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
In response, the MAC in a statement said that Taiwan “solemnly condemns” the TAO’s phrasing as a breach of the “Olympic model.”
The term refers to an agreement between Taiwan and the International Olympic Committee to resolve matters involving Taiwan’s representation in international sporting events.
“The Republic of China is a sovereign independent country with a president elected by popular vote, and a government organized according to the principles of democracy and the rule of law,” the MAC said.
The Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, which oversees the nation’s team at the Asian Winter Games, is equal to its foreign counterparts and its affairs are not China’s to meddle with, it said.
Beijing’s attempt to denigrate Taiwan “will not change the reality of the mutually non-subordinate nature of the relationship between the two parties across the Taiwan Strait, or have any effect beyond eliciting the resentment of Taiwanese,” it added.
The state-run China Sports Daily also referred to the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee as the Taipei, China committee in a report on a meeting between representatives of the Taiwanese organization and their Chinese counterparts.
Separately, the Sports Administration also criticized the TAO’s statement as a deviation from the Olympic model and going against the fact that Taiwan has never been part of the People’s Republic of China.
“The Chinese government discredited itself in the eyes of Taiwanese and the global community by refusing to follow rules governing the interaction between international organizations,” the agency said.
Beijing is urged to refrain from “using sports as a tool to belittle Taiwan, conduct ‘united front’ propaganda or other actions contrary to positive cross-strait relations,” it said.
When asked to comment on China’s position on the “Olympic model” agreement, TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) accused journalists of misunderstanding the agreement, because it applies to sporting events, but not their coverage by the media.
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
FATE UNKNOWN: The owner of the dog could face a fine of up to NT$150,000 and the animal could be euthanized if he cannot show that he can effectively supervise it A pit bull terrier has been confiscated by authorities after it yesterday morning bit a motorcyclist in Taipei, following footage of the same dog in a similar attack going viral online earlier this month. When the owner, surnamed Hsu (徐), stopped at a red light on Daan District’s (大安) Wolong Street at 8am, the dog, named “Lucky,” allegedly rolled down the automatic window of the pickup truck they were riding in, leapt out of the rear passenger window and attacked a motorcyclist behind them, Taipei’s Daan District Police Precinct said. The dog clamped down on the man’s leg and only let go
RSS