Lawmakers yesterday questioned ties between members of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (CTOC) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), calling for “transitional justice” after a controversy over airplane seating for Taiwan’s Olympic athletes.
As the Olympic delegation left for Japan on Monday, badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) wrote on Instagram that she missed the roominess of the seating in EVA Airways’ business class, which drew apologies from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and other officials, as Tsai in 2016 had pledged that all athletes and their coaches would fly in business class to international competitions.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) yesterday said that in Taiwan, as in most countries, non-governmental organizations run the national Olympic committee so that politics do not interfere.
Screen grab from the committee’s Web site.
The DPP administration does not make decisions for the Olympic delegation, Huang said.
The Sports Administration gives the CTOC the funds for the Olympics, but the administration has no say in the committee’s decisions, otherwise it would not be in compliance with the International Olympic Committee’s charter — most Taiwanese do not understand this, he added.
While Olympic athletes being seated in economy class sparked a public furor, pan-blue politicians placed the blame on the president and the DPP government, saying that they had betrayed the athletes’ trust and deceived the public.
Photo courtesy of Ni Tai-chih
On Wednesday, Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) said that the CTOC and most sports governing bodies in Taiwan are either controlled by KMT members, affiliated with them, or controlled by businesspeople with close KMT ties.
CTOC president Lin Hong-dow (林鴻道) is the second-generation owner of property-development conglomerate Hung Kuo Corp (宏國建設) and his mother, Lin Hsieh Han-chien (林謝罕見), was a high-ranking KMT official, Chen said.
CTOC vice president Chen Shyh-kwei (陳士魁) was Executive Yuan secretary-general under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), while CTOC top adviser Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) was Executive Yuan spokesman under Ma, Chen added.
Sports in Taiwan need transitional justice, Chen said.
“Changes must be made to allow new members and the younger generation into these sports bodies,” Chen said.
KMT-affiliated officials take up the top posts, not because of their sports expertise or experience in sports business, but because of their loyalty to the KMT during the party’s authoritarian regime, he said.
DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that many athletes and citizens are demanding that the CTOC and Taiwan’s other sports governing bodies have greater transparency and better accountability, including calls for another round of sports reform, following amendments to the National Sports Act (國民體育法) in 2017.
The Sports Administration allocated NT$150 million (US$5.35 million) to the CTOC, which decided on how to spend the money without lawmakers or the public, Wu said.
“These entrenched problems keep recurring, especially with the CTOC, where Olympic athletes get angered and complain to the public,” Huang said. “So it is once again time to push for reform at the CTOC and other sports governing bodies, to make changes and make them more accountable and transparent.”
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
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