Taiwan flags will be allowed at next month’s Summer Universiade in Taipei, organizers have confirmed.
The host nation will welcome the world’s best student athletes between August 19 and 30, but generally are not allowed to use the name “Taiwan” in international sport.
At all editions of the Olympic Games the country is referred to as Chinese Taipei and the Taiwanese flag and anthem are prohibited.
These terms were agreed in the late 1970s after China refused to let Taiwan participate independently at the 1976 Games in Montreal.
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), has its own Government but the Chinese consider the island to be a breakaway part of their own territory.
The Taiwanese boycotted the Games in Montreal and the following edition in Moscow four years later.
They participated for the first time as Chinese Taipei, a nation that technically does not exist, at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
This came after the International Olympic Committee passed the Nagoya Resolution in 1979, forcing Taiwan to use the name Chinese Taipei and banning its Olympic Committee from using the ROC flag or national anthem.
Taiwan’s appeals against this decision were dismissed.
A Universiade official has now told Taiwan News that the host nation’s flag will be allowed at the event.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je has also encouraged fans to bring the flag to events in the capital.
By Dan Palmer
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.
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