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.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
RSS