Netizens slammed the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) and the Tourism Bureau over their “friendly reminders” to Taiwanese travelers planning to attend the Olympic Games in London not to bring Republic of China (ROC) flags with them, saying the move was “self-degrading” to Taiwanese sovereignty.
Last week, the Taipei Association of Travel Agents (TATA) posted an announcement on its Web site, informing its members that if they are taking tour groups to attend the Olympic Games in London to be aware of the “Olympic model.”
The “Olympic model” refers to an agreement reached between Taiwan and the International Olympic Committee that only the name “Chinese Taipei” — not “Taiwan” or “ROC” — can be used at Olympic venues and that only the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee flag — not the ROC flag — can be used at Olympic events.
“According to regulations, items prohibited in the venues include flags of non-competing countries (our Olympic team uses the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee flag),” the announcement said.
“In order to prevent unnecessary disputes because travelers are not aware of the regulations, please contact the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee to send a representative to explain the Olympic model to those taking part in Olympic Games tour groups,” it added.
The announcement was delivered to the organization from the SAC through the Tourism Bureau.
“I guess this is what people would call ‘self-castration,’” netizen Alain Chen said about the announcement on his Facebook page.
“If you look down on yourself, how do you expect others to respect you?” asked Jennifer Lin, another Facebook user.
Mimiko (米果), a writer, posted a photo that she took during a World Baseball Classic (WBC) games in 2009 in Tokyo, in which a group of Taiwanese baseball fans held up a giant ROC flag in the audience on Facebook.
“I don’t know what the announcement is supposed to mean, but I know that in the WBC preliminary games of the Asia region, the organizers also applied the Olympic model. The Taiwanese national team competed under the name ‘Chinese Taipei’ and used the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee flag, but this was what happened in the audience when the Hymn to the National Flag was sung,” she wrote. “The tour guides who took the fans to the game didn’t do anything, the security of the Tokyo Dome didn’t do anything and neither did the organizers — why is the Tourism Bureau so afraid?”
Responding to the criticism, SAC Deputy Minister Chen Yun-lien (陳雲蓮) said it was routine for the council to forward regulations on Olympic Games to the Tourism Bureau, and that it was only a friendly reminder, denying that the act was “self-degrading.”
The announcement was removed from the TATA Web site yesterday afternoon.
‘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