The Taiwan Professional Basketball Players’ Association (TPBPA) yesterday called on spectators to wear black to last night’s William Jones Cup game in New Taipei City to protest the Taiwanese basketball federation’s policy of paying female players less than their male counterparts.
The protest came after the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA) on Monday announced that male players would be paid NT$5,000 and female players NT$3,000 for appearing in each commercial international game starting from this year’s Cup, which comprises men’s and women’s tournaments featuring teams from several countries, including Taiwan.
The appearance fees were first proposed by the CTBA in last month’s meeting with the players’ associate to negotiate the rights and benefits of national basketball team players in competitions.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
CTBA deputy secretary-general Chang Cheng-chung (張承中) on Monday told reporters that while its meetings with the TPBPA have long been focused on the men’s division, its cooperation with the women’s division is a separate situation.
“Before the meeting, we proposed NT$3,000 per game for each selected player on the blue and white teams,” he said.
The CTBA has to balance its budget and maintain its business model while benefiting female players, he added.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The TPBPA on Monday said that players wearing a national team jersey should not be treated differently because of their gender.
Both men and women are fighting for Taiwan and should not be treated differently, women’s blue team head coach Chiu Chi-yi (邱啟益) said.
While the negotiations between the CTBA and the TPBPA have led to better support services for the national team players and deserve recognition, gender equity should be considered as well without any differential treatment, Sports Administration Director Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) said in a statement on Monday.
The men’s division yesterday expressed support for the women’s division via a TPBPA statement, saying that the male players would lower their appearance fee to NT$3,000 to be the same as female players if the CTBA decides on that number.
The dedication of the women’s division to basketball is no less than their male counterparts and deserves to be seen, especially with a relatively harsh environment for female basketball players in Taiwan, it said.
The CTBA on Monday said in response to the Sports Administration’s statement that “the CTBA would like to negotiate the appearance fees with players contingent on the situation.”
In a statement issued yesterday, the CTBA said the four negotiating meetings with the TPBPA had been conducted with the men’s division in mind, before the TPBPA raised the issue of the women’s division on Tuesday last week and radically modified the agreement.
The fifth negotiation would be suspended without the national team players’ rights affected, it said, adding that the CTBA has established rights for the women’s division, but has yet to discuss it with the TPBPA.
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
‘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
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS