All 12,000 tickets for the Aug. 19 Summer Universiade opening ceremony were sold out by Friday, said Lee Chang-hui (李昌輝), an official responsible for the event’s promotion.
In comparison, only 17 percent of tickets have been sold for the Aug. 30 closing ceremony, but the Taipei City Government expects ticket sales to increase after it launches a promotional campaign in the second half of this month, he said.
The opening ceremony will be held at the Taipei Stadium, with performances by Taiwanese dancer PeiJu Chien-Pott (簡珮如), who was formerly with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Cirque du Soleil dancer Billy Chang (張逸軍) and singer Wang Lee-hom (王力宏).
The closing ceremony at the stadium is to be a rock ’n’ roll concert, with performances by LaLa Hsu, also known as Hsu Chia-ying (徐佳瑩), and Aboriginal singer Jia Jia (家家).
Ticket prices for the closing ceremony range from NT$500 to NT$2,000, while ticket prices for individual events range from NT$200 to NT$300.
People can also buy package tickets to attend multiple competitions in the same sport on different days for NT$500 to NT$1,600.
The Taipei City Police Department, which is in charge of security for the Universiade, has said it would deploy about 5,000 police at the Athletes’ Village and sports venues.
The Taiwanese team is to have 368 athletes, the nation’s biggest Universiade team ever, the Ministry of Education’s Sports Administration said.
The agency said Taiwanese athletes are to compete in 22 different sports and aim to win more than seven gold medals.
Athletes representing the nation include students from 49 educational institutions at home and abroad, it said.
They include weightlifter Hsu Shu-ching (許淑淨), a two-time Olympic gold medalist; weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳), who won a bronze medal in the women’s 58kg division at last year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro; archers Tan Ya-ting (譚雅婷) and Lei Chien-ying (雷千瑩), who won bronze at last year’s Olympics; tennis players Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴), who are seeded in the top 10 in the world women’s doubles; world No. 1 women’s badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎); table tennis players Chen Chien-an (陳建安) and Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜); and taekwondo players Chuang Chia-chia (莊佳佳), Liu Wei-ting (劉威廷) and Huang Yu-jen (黃鈺仁), the agency said.
Overseas-based athletes representing Taiwan include basketball player Ray Chen (陳盈駿), and golfers Yu Chun-an (俞俊安) and Chen Chih-min (陳之敏), it said.
Other athletes include players from the Chinese Professional Baseball League and those set to join the league, it added.
The Universiade team is to have 105 coaches, including 20 from overseas to help track-and-field athletes, the agency said.
The last Universiade was held in South Korea’s Gwangju in 2015.
Taiwan sent 236 athletes to that event and won six gold, 12 silver and 19 bronze medals, the agency said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as