President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday promised to improve the scandal-plagued professional baseball environment and help develop the national sport.
Ma said the government would work toward saving professional baseball by making it free of gambling fraud.
“Professional baseball is not at fault,” he said. “It is those who abuse the sport that are wrong.”
PHOTO: CHAN CHAO-YANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Ma made the remarks in Taichung while attending a sports event held by National Chung Hsing University to mark the 90th anniversary of its founding yesterday.
Ma said because baseball was the national sport, his government would do whatever it could to support the development of professional baseball and protect it from being corrupted by “external forces.”
Ma also urged athletes to be honest, saying that it was a pity if professional baseball players were involved in betting scandals because if they are found guilty, they would likely never play again.
The nation’s first professional league was inaugurated in 1989. The joy was short-lived, however, after a major betting scandal and the creation of another league resulted in fewer fans.
In April this year, the Executive Yuan approved a four-year, NT$1.26 billion (US$38.6 million) proposal to boost the sport. Under the proposal, each of the four teams in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) will be subsidized NT$10 million a year to set up lower league teams that play at least 60 games in a regular season.
The government will gradually establish an amateur baseball league, lifting the number of amateur teams from two to 12, the proposal said. Nine more amateur teams would be formed by local governments and state-owned businesses. The government will also offer colleges and high schools NT$10 million each to hold competitions every year to cultivate athletic skills, the proposal said.
The government plan at the time was made under public pressure following the lackluster performance of Taiwan’s baseball team at the World Baseball Classic.
Taiwan’s baseball team returned home after they were eliminated from the competition following losses to South Korea and China. The team’s loss to China marked the second defeat to the country in a year.
At a separate setting yesterday, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said the government would not sit by and watch baseball weaken or disappear because it is the national sport.
Promising to hold those who fix games legally responsible, Wu said the government would work to create a clean environment for baseball development.
“Cronies will not be eliminated without their masterminds being hunted down,” Wu said when approached by reporters for comment.
Wu did not propose any concrete measures yesterday, except saying that granting tax breaks to companies to encourage their sponsorship of baseball teams could be one measure.
On Tuesday, the Sports Affairs Council will meet with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Education and the four baseball teams to map out a recovery plan.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
Also See: CPBL president slams prosecutors
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS