An initiative undertaken by Kainan University students yesterday to decorate their campus with Republic of China (ROC) national flags led to a dramatic reaction from a Chinese basketball team, which decided to withdraw from a game it was scheduled to play against a side from Mongolia yesterday afternoon.
Kainan University was the host of this year’s Asian University Basketball Championship, being held in Taoyuan County. Hundreds of ROC national flags were visible from the campus’ parking lots all the way to the bleachers. Upon seeing the flags, a bus carrying the Chinese team left abruptly and the team withdrew.
“We decided to bring in more national flags as a protest against the tournament organizers because we are not satisfied with the way they handled the incident yesterday [Thursday],” said a Kainan University student who declined to be named. “I don’t understand why they stopped us from hanging up our national flags.”
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The student was referring to the incident on Thursday in which spectators were asked to fold up the ROC national flag they were waving at a university basketball game in Taoyuan County in the latest controversy over the display of the flag at international sporting events.
The incident took place when officials of the Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (CTUSF), the organizer, asked three Kainan University students to take down their meter-high ROC flag at a game between Taiwan University All-Stars and China’s Tianjin Polytechnic University, saying that it was because of a “tacit understanding” with China.
The move immediately sparked outrage from both the students and opposition party lawmakers, who slammed the gesture as “unreasonable” and “disappointing.”
“I’m only half Taiwanese, but whenever I go to international competitions, I always bring the Taiwanese flag,” said Chong Nian-chu (塚念祖), a first-year accounting student at the university. “This competition took place in Taiwan and in our school’s own gymnasium. Why was [I] not allowed to do so?”
Adding that he was also half Japanese, Chong said his intention was originally to express his support for the Taiwanese team. Despite having his flag taken down, Chong insisted that he “definitely had the right” to wave Taiwan’s national symbol.
The week-long competition follows the “Chinese Taipei formula” set up by the International Olympic Committee in 1981.
Under the formula, Taiwanese teams must participate in sporting events under the name “Chinese Taipei” and organizers are not allowed to hang ROC national flags at sporting venues. However, the regulations do not cover spectators.
Information suggests the Chinese team was ready to stop the game and lodge a protest when the three students started to hold up the flag near the end of the third quarter.
The action was promptly stopped by head referee Lee Hung-chi (李鴻棋).
“We didn’t want to wait until the other team protested to dissuade the students. It was done to avoid any unexpected problems,” Lee said.
He later attempted to downplay the incident, saying that he had only “advised” the students to take down the flag because it was getting in the way of other spectators trying to watch the game. Yet picture evidence showed that the flag was held up in the last row of bleachers, well behind any other spectators.
Unconvinced by Lee’s explanation, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) questioned why Lee “was so afraid of China.”
“It’s completely natural -behavior for the public to wave their own national flag and cheer for their national team at an international competition,” she said, adding that the referee’s behavior was likely influenced by the “continued abandonment of [Taiwan’s] sovereignty by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.”
Chen Kuo-yi (陳國儀), the -secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, also suggested that Lee could have misread the regulations. He called Lee’s actions “improper” and that Lee’s handling of the incident was incorrect.
“Unless these [regulations] are explicitly written on the tickets of the event or publicly told to spectators, organizers cannot prevent them from holding the national flag in the bleachers,” he said.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Sports Affairs Council said it was a “pity” to learn of the action taken by the officials, describing the handling of the incident by the CTUSF as inappropriate and that it had misinterpreted the “Chinese Taipei” formula.
Vice Minister of Education Lin Tsong-ming (林聰明) said yesterday that although the ministry respects the event organizers, the organizers cannot stop the audience from holding or -waving the national flag unless tickets to the games clearly state that national flags are banned.
“As far as we know, the organizers did not sell any tickets to the championship,” Lin said.
Lin said that the ministry sent an official document to schools yesterday banning them from removing the national flag because of Chinese visitors.
The ministry will punish schools that remove national flags or cancel the singing of the national anthem because of the -presence of Chinese visitors, he said, adding that cross-strait exchanges must be conducted under a principle of equality.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG, CNA AND STAFF WRITER
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)