Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Chinese sports officials seized the Republic of China flags from two Taipei swimming champions attending the International Children's Games at Bangkok after they wrapped them round their shoulders as they walked toward a stage to collect their gold medals on Saturday, Ma said.
Chang Fen-fen (
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAIPEI CITY GOVERNMENT
According to King, the Beijing team official did not want to lose face, and replied, "You left us with no other choice."
"Is violence your only choice?" King said he replied.
To this, King said, the female members of the Beijing team screamed "Yes!"
"I don't know why they had to act like a bunch of snot-nosed purse-snatchers. How they behaved was disgusting and ugly," King said at CKS International Airport upon his return to Taipei last night.
He urged all participating nation's to protest the assaults.
"It was a regrettable incident," Ma said. "It was an unfriendly ... brutal and impolite gesture."
Ma did not identify the Chinese officials or the athletes.
Most sports organizations do not bar athletes from wearing flags other than those formally sanctioned, Ma said.
Taiwan participates at most international sports events under the name of "Chinese Taipei" as the nation is prevented from using its official name because of China's objections.
The International Children's Games are held annually to promote friendship among youths aged 12 to 15.
Meanwhile, former premier Frank Hsieh (
"Such an act of violence should not be accepted. We should lodge a solemn protest. We hope the Taipei City Government can properly deal with the incident," he said.
One Taiwanese athlete who was able to keep her flag was Li Ya-wen, who won the gold medal in the B-class Taekwondo contest.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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