2008 Torch Relay: Route Dispute
Two recent news items by REUTERS put in question earlier information that an agreement was reached between Taiwan and Mainland China regarding the route for the 2008 Olympic torch relay.
BEIJING. April 19 (REUTERS; The Guardian) Beijing organizers still believe a solution is possible to the problem of taking the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch relay to the island of Taiwan, an official said on Thursday.
The governing party of Taiwan, a self-ruled island which China considers a rebel province, agreed on Wednesday they would not admit the Olympic torch if it entered or left the island via mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau.
That decision would seem to have scuppered a compromise by which the torch would leave Taiwan for Hong Kong, a special administrative region under Chinese control, which had been viewed as a solution that would satisfy both Beijing and Taipei.
'People who love the Olympics want to see the torch relay,' said Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).
'I'm convinced our Taiwan compatriots, and those of Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland, are interested in seeing the torch relay. This our common will.
'With the help of the IOC guidelines, I'm sure we can work together to satisfy everybody's goals.'
The torch relay schedule must be approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s executive board, which meets in Beijing, and Jiang said it had been 'generally settled' and would be announced by the end of April.
Jiang was speaking at the closing news conference of the eighth visit to Beijing of the IOC Coordination Commission, whose chairman said it beggared belief that anybody would turn down a chance to host the torch relay.
'We have as the IOC such an amount of requests from countries that don't ask for anything better than to be part of the torch relay that I have problems to imagine that a country does not want the torch relay,' Hein Verbruggen said.
'And that goes for Taiwan too. I have problems believing that there is a country that would willingly refuse that to their population.'
Taiwan's ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party said the decision to refuse the torch via any Chinese controlled territory was to give the impression that Taiwan was not a part of China. An official with the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee in Taiwan agreed that passing the torch through Hong Kong or Macau would be 'a bit difficult'.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Also from REUTERS:
18 April 2007
TAIPEI. Taiwan's ruling party has agreed that the Olympic torch for the 2008 Beijing Games must not enter or exit the island via China, Hong Kong or Macau, a party leader said on Wednesday.
The consensus reflects the Taiwan government's view of itself as a self-ruled country rather than part of Chinese territory, said Lai I-chung, director of the Democratic Progressive Party's Chinese Affairs Department.
'It's in order to give the impression that Taiwan is not part of China,' said Lai, whose party has held the presidency and a parliamentary majority since 2000.
China is determined the torch relay will visit Taiwan, which it regards as a rebel province to be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary, and a departure to Hong Kong or Macau was viewed as a solution that would satisfy both Beijing and Taipei.
An official with the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee in Taiwan agreed that passing the torch through Hong Kong or Macau, which are special administrative regions under Chinese control, would be 'a bit difficult'.
The Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) was supposed to announce the route last year but decided to put it back. Talks with a delegation from Taipei in January looked to have resolved the Taiwan issue and BOCOG said last week they had finalised the plan. The International Olympics Committee (IOC) executive board, which must approve the schedule, meets in Beijing next week, and BOCOG is scheduled to announce the route on April 26.
