Washington, Aug. 9 (CNA) – The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) and more than a dozen other foreign groups sent a letter Friday urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow Taiwan’s team to compete under the name “Taiwan” rather than “Chinese Taipei.”
The letter was addressed to IOC President Thomas Bach and members of the IOC Executive Board and was sent just two days before the end of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, according to a FAPA press release.
“Taiwan is an independent, sovereign country and this is a long-established status quo,” FAPA President Kao Su-mei (林素梅) was quoted as saying in the statement. He argued that Taiwan’s Olympic team “has the full right to proudly compete under the name ‘Taiwan.'”
“The IOC, in blatant disregard of the principles of ‘non-discrimination’ and ‘political neutrality’ enshrined in the Olympic Charter, has forced the Taiwanese team to use the derogatory name ‘Chinese Taipei’, which undermines Taiwan’s independent statehood and national dignity,” she said.
The FAPA president criticized China for being behind the name dispute and continuing to harass Taiwan and exert political pressure on the IOC.
In the letter, the groups said the “unfair, Taiwan-specific restrictions” had been extended to fans as well, citing incidents in which items bearing the word “Taiwan” were “unjustifiably banned and forcibly taken from Taiwanese supporters by Olympic staff or Chinese spectators.”
FAPA and other co-signatory organizations “strongly condemn these acts of violence,” it said.
These actions “not only violated the Olympic spirit and principles set out in the Olympic Charter,” but also interfered with the “freedom of expression” of Taiwanese spectators at the Olympic Games to express their support for the athletes of their country, ‘Taiwan,'” the letter said.
At the same time, they called on IOC President Bach and the entire Executive Board “not to give in to political pressure from China” and to immediately stop the “discriminatory rule” that allows Taiwanese athletes to compete under the fictitious name “Chinese Taipei”.
The name “Chinese Taipei” “falsely implies that Taiwan is part of China (the People’s Republic of China), even though Taiwan has never been ruled by the People’s Republic of China for a single day,” they wrote.
The name “Chinese Taipei”, established in March 1981 in the Lausanne Agreement between the IOC and the Olympic Committee of the Republic of China (Taiwan), enabled Taiwanese athletes to participate in the Olympic Games after the country was unable to host the Games in 1976 due to the name dispute.
Taiwan’s athletes returned to the Olympic Games in 1984 and have competed under the name Chinese Taipei ever since.
Friday’s letter was initiated by Washington-based FAPA and co-signed by 23 overseas Taiwanese organizations from around the world, including the Asociación de Taiwan en Argentina, the All Japan Taiwanese Union, the Taiwan Association in Sweden and the Taiwanese American Citizens League.
