The spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Yang Yi (楊毅), said yesterday that both Zhongguo Taibei (中國台北, “Taipei, China”) and Zhonghua Taibei (中華台北, “Chinese Taipei”) are acceptable translations for the official Olympic designation of “Chinese Taipei,” thus threatening to raise tensions between China and Taiwan one month before the Olympics.
In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said the development was “a severe mistake,” and it would protest to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Yang said that although both translations were acceptable, the Beijing organizing committee (BOCOG) would use Zhonghua Taibei in printed materials and at all venues. But Yang added that the decision was not binding on any other Chinese group, organization or individual.
In Taipei, MAC Vice Chairman Chang Liang-jen (張良任) said “Chinese Taipei” was the name that the Olympic committees of both sides agreed on in 1989 and that the government was firmly opposed to the name “Taipei, China.”
Chang said that in 1989, when the then chair of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), met Chinese Olympic Committee representatives, the two parties agreed that the translation of “Chinese Taipei” would be Zhonghua Taibei.
SARKOZY SAYS OUI
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games next month, his office said yesterday.
Sarkozy told Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) he would go to Beijing during a meeting on the sidelines of the G8 summit.
Sarkozy had threatened to boycott the Olympic opening gala following a Chinese crackdown in Tibet in March that sparked international outrage, leading to speculation that some world leaders might shun the Games.
“The head of state consulted all of his European counterparts and, with their agreement, will attend the opening ceremony in his double capacity as president of France and as president of the European Union,” the statement said.
Sarkozy said earlier that his decision on whether to attend the ceremony would hinge on progress in talks between China and the Dalai Lama.
In France, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) accused Sarkozy of surrendering to China.
“I am disappointed and bitter. Until the last moment, I kept hoping he would not dare” attend the ceremony, RSF secretary-general Robert Menard said.
“This is a surrender in the middle of battle, an abandonment of all the commitments he made as a candidate and all of the values our country embodies,” Menard said.
He said Sarkozy’s decision was a “stab in the back” to Chinese dissidents, who had been “abandoned” by France.
RSF, which spearheaded protests during the Olympic torch’s global relay, said it was calling for protests outside Chinese embassies worldwide on Aug. 8 and would travel to China to demonstrate in defiance of a ban.
During his meeting with Hu, Sarkozy expressed France’s desire to boost its strategic partnership with China “in all its dimensions” and reiterated French support for Beijing following the May earthquake in Sichuan Province.
French officials said the meeting between Sarkozy and Hu went “extremely well” and the strategic partnership between France and China was “back on track once again.”
Xinhua news agency reported yesterday that tourists would be banned from visiting Beijing’s prestigious Peking University during the Olympics.
The top university will be closed to visitors from July 20 to Sept. 18, Xinhua reported.
The ban will be imposed because of security concerns, Xinhua said, quoting the deputy head of the university’s campus security department.
Teachers, students and staff will have to show identity cards or passes issued by the university to get onto the campus.
The campus, where Olympic and Paralympic table tennis events will be held, is a huge tourist attraction, and every summer thousands of parents take their children there to motivate them to do well in their studies, Xinhua said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
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