Twenty-four overseas Taiwanese organizations in a joint letter urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to stop infringing on spectators’ freedom of speech and allow them to display Taiwan signage.
The letter, addressed to IOC president Thomas Bach and members of the IOC executive board, was led by the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), along with 23 other overseas Taiwanese organizations from the US, Japan, Europe, Argentina and Costa Rica.
During the Olympic games, signs or items with the words “Taiwan” on them have been snatched away by Olympic security staff or Chinese spectators. Some spectators holding such signs have been forcibly ejected from venues, the letter said, adding that the IOC’s “Taiwan-specific restrictions” were “unfair” to spectators supporting the nation.
Photo: Ann Wang, REUTERS
These violent acts were against the Olympic spirit and “infringed on the freedom of speech of Taiwanese spectators at the Olympics to rightfully express support for the athletes from their country, ‘Taiwan,’” it said.
The letter also called on the IOC to “let Taiwanese athletes compete under the name ‘Taiwan’” rather than forcing them to use “the discriminatory misnomer ‘Chinese Taipei.’”
Taiwan is an independent country, which is a long-established “status quo,” and the nation’s Olympic teams should be able to “compete proudly and properly under the name ‘Taiwan,’” FAPA president Kao Su-mei (林素梅) said.
Due to political pressure from China, the IOC unfairly contravenes the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter that “every individual must have access to the practice of sport, without discrimination,” and that “sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality,” she said.
“For four decades since 1984, capitulating to the political pressure from the People’s Republic of China [PRC], the IOC has unjustly forced Taiwan to participate in the Olympics under the name ‘Chinese Taipei’ and prohibited the display of its national flag and the playing of its national anthem during the games,” the letter said.
“We call on President Bach and the full IOC Executive Board not to succumb to China’s political pressure and immediately stop its discriminatory requirement for athletes from Taiwan to compete under the fictitious name ‘Chinese Taipei,’ which falsely implies that Taiwan is part of China, even though Taiwan has never been ruled by the PRC for a single day,” it said.
The letter also called on the international community to “support democracy and freedom by opposing authoritarian China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty and independent statehood through the forcible imposition of the humiliating name ‘Chinese Taipei’ on Taiwan.”
The letter urged Bach and other Olympic officials to “resist China’s political bullying against Taiwan” and eradicate all discriminatory and unjust restraints imposed on Taiwanese athletes and supporters.
“We call on the IOC to live up to the ideals and principles of the Olympic Charter, allow Taiwan to proudly compete under its name, ‘Taiwan,’ and use the national flag and anthem that can truly represent Taiwan,” they said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS