Weighing in on the controversial disqualification of Asian Games contender Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Sinbei City mayoral candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday announced his support for the creation of a new taekwondo training center.
Chu said in a statement that Taiwan needed to better equip its athletes to give them more determination in “beating the Korean team” in international sporting events.
“We are all behind Yang because of the injustice she was suffered,” he said in the statement. “This is why we need to better support and train the abilities of our athletes … by creating a large taekwondo -training center in northern Taiwan.”
Chu’s announcement came after Yang’s father, Yang Chin-hsing (楊進興), a resident of Taipei County was found to have attended a campaign rally for Chu’s opponent, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the previous night.
Tsai’s campaign officials said the meeting was not planned in advance.
“He stood close to the stage and [you can see] he cares very much about this election,” Tsai said.
While the athlete’s father stopped short of confirming that he supported the DPP candidate, Tsai said she believed “this was probably why he came to the campaign rally.”
Downplaying the encounter’s possible effect on Saturday’s election, officials at Chu’s campaign released photographs also confirming that Yang Chin-hsing’s father had also met the KMT candidate on Saturday, after Chu paid a visit to the Yang family home in Yingge Township (鶯歌).
“As I’ve always said, this controversy exceeds politics and both parties, regardless of color, should support our Yang Shu-chun,” Chu said about the meeting.
Yang Shu-chun’s father inadvertently found himself in the media spotlight after he told a call-in TV program on Wednesday that he could not accept his daughter’s sudden disqualification from the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
At the time, he heavily criticized Sports Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chen Hsien-chung (陳顯宗), who told him to “swallow the ruling” after World Taekwondo Federation officials said Yang Shu-chun had illegally attached extra sensory pads on her socks. That ruling is now under dispute after video evidence confirmed that she had taken the two pads off prior to the match.
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