Former Sports Administration director-general Yang Chung-ho (楊忠和) yesterday questioned the motives of former Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (CTOC) member Yao Yuan-chao (姚元潮), referring to a letter Yao sent to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in April saying that a local alliance’s push for a change to Taiwan’s name in the Olympics was promoting Taiwanese independence.
A group of local civic organizations has formed an alliance campaigning to change the nation’s name from “Chinese Taipei” to “Taiwan” at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
National Policy Adviser to the President Chi Cheng (紀政), Yang and other advocates in February submitted a referendum bid on the matter to the Central Election Commission after a petition drive passed the first-stage threshold.
Photo: CNA
The campaign is now hoping to reach the second-stage threshold of 280,000 signatures by the end of next month and to put the issue to a vote at the end of the year.
“The gathering of signatures is not yet complete and we have not even voted in a referendum,” said Chi, who is also an Olympic track and field medalist. “Why did [Yao] tell on [us]?”
Yao reportedly wrote that Chi’s behavior would trigger a crisis in the Taiwan Strait and suggested that the IOC send a warning to Taiwanese authorities through the CTOC to prevent a crisis.
The IOC in May sent a letter to the CTOC saying that it would not approve a change to the name “Chinese Taipei,” under which Taiwan commonly competes internationally.
Yao said he wrote the letter himself and no one directed him, adding that if he had not said something, serious problems would arise.
In response, Chi said it was embarrassing that Japanese are helping Taiwan, but some Taiwanese are sabotaging the efforts.
A group of Japanese last year formed the Taiwan 2020 Campaign Council in Tokyo to petition for the nation’s participation in the Tokyo Olympics under the name “Taiwan.”
As someone who has worked in the CTOC, Yao should know that athletes want to compete under the name Taiwan, Chi said.
Yao’s motive is strange, she added.
Furthermore, the IOC cooperated and convened a meeting of its Executive Board, and China and pro-China groups used the IOC’s letter to make threats and obstruct the referendum, he said.
If the referendum passes, the government must begin pushing and lobbying for the Olympic name change according to IOC-approved processes, Yang said.
In the past, even when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government wanted to participate in the Olympics under the name “Republic of China,” athletes’ ability to compete was unaffected, Yang said, adding that the current campaign would not affect their right to compete either.
‘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 High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and