IOC should call Taiwan by its name: US lawmakers

• By Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter

Three US Representatives on Thursday urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to stop requesting Taiwan to join the Olympic Games using the name Chinese Taipei (中華台北) in a letter addressed to committee president Thomas Bach.

Not only do Taiwanese athletes have to compete under the name “Chinese Taipei,” but Taiwan’s national flag and national anthem are also barred as the committee “capitulated to pressure from communist China,” US representatives Tom Tiffany, Andy Ogles and Chris Smith said in the letter.

“This is not just unfair, it violates the core tenets of the Olympic Charter,” they said.

The charter states: “Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination,” and “sport occurs within the framework of society, sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality.”

Taiwan “has never been under the control of the People’s Republic of China, or part of its territory for even a single day,” they said.

However, Taiwan is unable to be called by its own name while athletes from Puerto Rico and Bermuda do not have to compete as territories of the US or the UK respectively, they said.

Puerto Rico and Bermuda are allowed to use their own flags at the opening ceremony and during medal award presentations, they added.

The US lawmakers described the treatment as “uniquely irrational Taiwan-specific restrictions,” adding that there have been reports of Taiwanese fans being banned from waving national flags at Olympic venues.

“This makes no sense,” they said.

They called on Bach and other IOC officials to “resist China’s persistent bullying and consider sweeping away these discriminatory restraints on Taiwan’s athletes and supporters before the Paris Summer Games begin later this year.”

The Games are to take place from July 26 to Aug. 11.

After Taiwan left the UN in 1971, its Olympic committee and other sports associations were excluded from the IOC and various international sports organizations due to Beijing’s oppression, Taiwan’s Olympic committee said.

The title of Taiwan’s national team, and its flag and emblem, in the Games were approved and recognized by the IOC according to an agreement it reached with Taiwan’s Olympic committee in 1981 in Lausanne, Switzerland, it said.