To what lows would China stoop to protect its already tarnished image and save face? Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of knee-jerk reactions out of China when it comes to projecting its prowess — the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the mass roundup of Falun Gong practitioners, the “Anti-Secession” Law and shrill reactions to US arms sales to Taiwan — but Wednesday’s twist of fate in the women’s taekwondo event at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, really takes the cake.
Officials disqualified Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) for wearing electronic socks that had passed inspections prior to the event, sending her packing just as she was beating her Vietnamese opponent Vu Thi Hau 9-0.
What prompted this? On the surface, it would seem that Chinese authorities didn’t want to see a Taiwanese athlete do well in a tournament they were organizing.
The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) had certified the brand of electronic socks that led to Yang’s disqualification. She said she had brought two pairs of WTF-sanctioned socks, but officials rejected one pair, so she was allowed to wear the other pair in the event. The chief judge had examined her socks before the match began, so it seems unreasonable that she was disqualified in the first round of her bout with Vu.
Taiwanese anchorwoman Chen Yi-an (陳怡安), an Olympic taekwondo gold medalist, likely hit on the truth when she angrily denounced the decision, saying she suspected a plot to discredit Yang because she was likely to meet Chinese competitor Wu Jingyu (吳靜鈺) — who beat Yang at the 2008 Beijing Olympics — if she won against Vu.
Now it seems judges at the Asian Games eliminated the risk that the “pride of China” would be beaten by the “pride of Taiwan.”
The controversy over this decision is not going to die down soon, even though the five-member WTF technical committee confirmed the disqualification and the Asian Games arbitration committee rejected a formal protest from the Taiwanese delegation.
In a rare show of unity, Taiwanese lawmakers across party lines have condemned this decision as unfair. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄), a former taekwondo athlete, called the ruling “inconceivable and ridiculous,” while Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) urged the Sports Affairs Council to do everything it could to overturn the decision, “even if it means we have to boycott the Games.”
Chinese authorities have demonstrated time and again their lack of respect for Taiwan, which they consider a renegade “province” that should bow to their every whim.
Most of the time, this disrespect is manifested in greater forms — stealing Taiwan’s allies, exerting economic or military pressure and rejecting Taiwan’s UN membership bids.
However, sometimes its attitude toward Taiwan is put on display in much smaller, yet equally unsubtle ways — this time, seemingly twisting the rules to have a legitimate athlete disqualified from the Asian Games.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS