American organization appeals to IOC to allow Taiwan team to compete under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei”

Washington, DC (USA), August 11 (ANI): The Formosan Public Affairs Association (FAPA) and several other foreign organisations in a letter have appealed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow the Taiwanese team to compete under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei”, Focus Taiwan reported.

According to a FAPA press release, the letter was addressed to IOC President Thomas Bach and members of the IOC Executive Board and sent two days before the end of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

“Taiwan is an independent, sovereign country, and this is the long-established ‘status quo,’” FAPA president Kao Su-mei said in a statement, arguing that Taiwan’s Olympic team “has every right to compete proudly under the name ‘Taiwan.’” “The IOC, in flagrant disregard of the principles of ‘non-discrimination’ and ‘political neutrality’ enshrined in the Olympic Charter, forced the Taiwanese team to use the offensive name ‘Chinese Taipei,’ which undermines Taiwan’s independence and national dignity,” she said.

The letter was drafted by the Washington-based FAPA and signed by 23 Taiwanese organizations from around the world, including the Asociacion de Taiwan en Argentina, the All Japan Taiwanese Union, the Taiwan Association in Sweden and the Taiwanese American Citizens League.

The FAPA chairman also criticized China for being behind the name dispute, and said China continues to intimidate Taiwan and exert political pressure on the IOC, Focus Taiwan reported.

The groups stressed in the letter that “unfair restrictions specific to Taiwan” were being extended to fans, citing incidents in which items with the word “Taiwan” on them were “unreasonably banned and forcibly snatched from Taiwanese fans by Olympic staff or Chinese spectators.” It added that FAPA and other co-signatory organizations “strongly condemn these acts of violence.” These actions “not only violated the Olympic spirit and the principles set out in the Olympic Charter,” but also violated the “freedom of speech” of Taiwanese spectators at the Olympic Games to express support for athletes from their home country, “Taiwan,” the letter said.

In the meantime, they called on IOC President Bach and the entire executive board “not to bow to political pressure from China” and to immediately end the “discriminatory requirement” for athletes from Taiwan to compete under the fictitious name “Chinese Taipei.” The group said in its letter that the name Chinese Taipei “falsely suggests that Taiwan is part of China (PRC), even though Taiwan has never been ruled by the PRC for a single day.” The name Chinese Taipei, finalized in the Lausanne Agreement in March 1981 between the IOC and the Olympic Committee of the Republic of China (Taiwan), enabled athletes from Taiwan to compete in the Olympics after the Games were not held in 1976 due to the name issue.

When Taiwanese athletes returned to the Olympics in 1984, they competed under the name Chinese Taipei ever since, according to Focus Taiwan. (ANI)