Advocacy groups have called for the national team to compete under the name “Taiwan” at the Tokyo Olympics, while former Olympian Chi Cheng (紀政) has launched another referendum petition on the issue.
Taiwanese athletes have performed outstandingly at the Olympics and have raised the nation’s profile on the world stage, Northern Taiwan Society chairman Lee Chuan-hsin (李川信) said on Friday.
“Many foreign news agencies, including Japan’s NHK, have called our delegation ‘Taiwan’ instead of ‘Chinese Taipei.’ Therefore our own people and politicians should also speak of ‘Team Taiwan’ and Taiwanese athletes,” he said.
Photo: CNA
“However, in Taiwan, most of the time the Taiwanese team is still referred to as Team Zhonghua (中華, Chinese). We see the medal-winning athletes returning home and holding media briefings at the airport without any wording, symbols or logos to represent Taiwan,” he added.
The advocates released a joint statement, expressing their gratitude to the international community for supporting the nation’s athletes, but added that “it shows the need to avoid a mix-up, as some have mistaken Taiwanese athletes as coming from China.”
“Therefore we are organizing the ‘Call Us Team Taiwan, Let’s Go Taiwan’ drive, and we urge people to join us,” the statement said.
The drive urges people to produce their own “Call Us Team Taiwan” posters, sign boards and adverts to show the world they feel proud to support Taiwanese athletes.
The groups also called on Taiwanese politicians and public figures to support “Team Taiwan,” and not to refer to it as “Chinese Taipei” anymore.
Among the groups promoting the drive are the Taiwan Society, the Asia-Pacific Liberal Women Association and the Taiwan Association of University Professors, as well overseas organizations, including the All Japan Taiwanese Union, the Friends of Taiwan Association Japan, the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations and the Taiwanese Association of America.
Meanwhile, Chi has this week announced that she would launch another referendum campaign next year to rectify the national team’s name by changing it to “Team Taiwan,” adding that she aims to have the proposed referendum ready for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Taiwanese do not want the athletes representing their nation to be called ‘Chinese Taipei’ when they are competing or walking to the podium to receive an Olympic medal,” said Chi, who competed in three Olympic Games: Rome in 1960, Tokyo in 1964 and Mexico in 1968.
Chi was among the leading advocates of a referendum in 2018 that called for changing the national team’s name to “Team Taiwan” for the Tokyo Olympics.
At the time, the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee asked people to vote “no,” saying that the nation’s athletes cannot go abroad to compete under the name “Taiwan” and it would ruin their careers.
The 2018 referendum asked: “Do you agree that the nation should apply under the name of ‘Taiwan’ for all international sports events, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?”
It garnered 5,774,556 “no” votes (52.3 percent) and 4,763,086 “yes” votes (43.1 percent).
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