I would like to respond to a recent article published in the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) [the translation of which appears on this page as “Time to use ‘Taiwan’ name in Olympics” by Tommy Lin].
I agree with the author that from now on, the country should try to use the name “Taiwan” when participating in the Olympic Games, but I also have some different views to those stated in that article.
First, the article said that Japanese politicians offered to help the country participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics under the name of Taiwan. However, I am a bit puzzled by this claim.
There are many Taiwan-friendly members in the Japanese House of Representatives and House of Councillors, and there are some Taiwan-friendly groups such as the Nikka Giin Kondankai (日華議員懇談會), literally the “Japanese-Chinese parliamentary club” (Why can it not be the “Japanese-Taiwanese parliamentary club”?). They often offer assistance to Taiwan.
However, the parliament is one thing, the government is another, and the latter is who sets and implements national policies. Since Japan has official diplomatic relations with China, how can Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration and previous Japanese administrations openly support Taiwan’s participation in the Olympics under the name of “Taiwan”?
The article said that then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who served concurrently as the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson, not only did not support the name-changing campaign for the Tokyo Olympics, but also tried to “downplay and quash” it in every way, thus making it impossible for the Tokyo Olympics name changing referendum to pass. I believe that this is a big misunderstanding.
Many referendums were proposed at that time, and each had far-reaching consequences for Taiwanese. Perhaps the referendum that the author was concerned about did not seem to be widely discussed by the public, but this did not mean that Tsai did not attach importance to it.
As the most representative figure of Taiwan’s hawkish camp, how could she not support it, or sabotage it by “downplaying and quashing” the campaign? May I ask again, what is the concrete evidence of the alleged sabotage of the referendum?
In addition, the 2018 referendum, which asked people if they supported Taiwanese athletes competing in international sport competitions under the name of “Taiwan,” not passing might be due to the design set out by the National Referendum Act (公民投票法), or that people were neither particularly enthusiastic nor disapproving of the name change.
Instead of accusing Tsai of sabotage, do not forget that before the referendum a group of Taiwanese athletes stood together and shouted: “Names don’t matter, We wanna compete!” and “Politics is politics, sports is sports!” Was the Taiwanese athletes’ call not the straw that broke the camel’s back on this issue?
Hung Yu-jui is a translator and Japanese-language teacher.
Translated by Eddy Chang
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
RSS