Taiwan Flag at Olympics: Why Not?

[Greg Bernhardt]

why couldn't they have their flag?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

China, China... you mean that country NW of Taiwan?

small hijack, anyone find it interesting Taiwan couldn't display their flag in the opening ceremonies?

small hijack, anyone find it interesting Taiwan couldn't display their flag in the opening ceremonies?

Only country flags - not provincial flags.

Taiwan isn't recognised by china so can't have it's own flag.
There have been calls for Scotland to compete as it's own team in London in 2012, so the Brits will have to install a firewall and block any journalists from viewing sites about scotland or deep fried mars-bars.

Only country flags - not provincial flags.

Puerto Rico is not a country and they had a flag

 

[Gokul43201]

This follows from the "One China" policy.

If I remember right, in previous Olympics, Chinese Taipei flew their own flag (I may be wrong).

 

[Astronuc]

The PRC considers Taiwan a renegade province and not a country.

IIRC, no other nation (except perhaps Israel), not even the US, recognizes Taiwan as an independent nation. The US maintains a one China policy, as in Taiwan is not a sovereign state, although it is defacto independent of PRC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_independence

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

The PRC considers Taiwan a renegade province and not a country.

IIRC, no other nation (except perhaps Israel), not even the US, recognizes Taiwan as an independent nation. The US maintains a one China policy, as in Taiwan is not a sovereign state, although it is defacto independent of PRC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_independence

How goofy, until independence they might as well be under the Chinese flag.

 

[mgb_phys]

Presumably though Taiwan regards itself as the real china and the PRC as a renegade province - so they should have the original chinese olympic flag?

US policy is a bit odd, they do not recognise Taiwan - to the extent of listing Taiwan's telephone county code as unused, but they do sell them weapons.
I think there was also some complaints about some caribbean islands sending separate teams although they administratively the same country.
A bit like the separate England,N. Ireland,Scotland,Wales teams in the world cup - except the caribbeans won something!

Does the vatican get a team?

 

[quadraphonics]

The PRC considers Taiwan a renegade province and not a country.

And the ROC likewise considers mainland China a renegade province(s) of the country.

IIRC, no other nation (except perhaps Israel), not even the US, recognizes Taiwan as an independent nation.

I don't think that any country has *ever* recognized Taiwan as an independent nation. But there are still 23 countries that recognize it as the sole legitimate government of all of China. Every few years Beijing buys another of them off, though (they tend to be small, impoverished countries).

 

[LowlyPion]

small hijack, anyone find it interesting Taiwan couldn't display their flag in the opening ceremonies?

Puerto Rico is not a country and they had a flag

Sorry I wasn't serious - merely facetious. The Chinese refuse to accept the territorial division of Taiwan from the Revolution. They probably should and just get over themselves. But sadly they cling to the perception.

 

[LowlyPion]

Does the vatican get a team?

When the Rosary Throw becomes a recognized sport?

 

[D H]

I don't think that any country has *ever* recognized Taiwan as an independent nation.

Read your history. Until 1971 the ROC was the sole representative of all of China at the United Nations. In 1971 the UN booted the ROC out and acknowledged the PRC as the sole representative of all of China. Rhetorical question: Since the United Nations is so interested in the right to self governance, why isn't the UN making a big stink about the PRC's claim to sovereignty over Taiwan?

 

[BobG]

Read your history. Until 1971 the ROC was the sole representative of all of China at the United Nations. In 1971 the UN booted the ROC out and acknowledged the PRC as the sole representative of all of China. Rhetorical question: Since the United Nations is so interested in the right to self governance, why isn't the UN making a big stink about the PRC's claim to sovereignty over Taiwan?

This seems to be a pretty big gray area. The UN is very interested in the right of UN members to self governance of their entire country, as defined by land. The UN really doesn't address nations as defined by people.

Georgia has the right to govern its entire territorial borders. The people of South Ossetia don't have the right to self governance because they lie within Georgia's borders. Likewise, the Kurds have no right to self governance because the area they occupy lies within the borders of three recognized UN nations. Nor does the UN recognize the Hopi's right to self governance since their land lies within the borders of the US (although the Hopi and other Native American tribes do have some rights to self-governance through treaties with the US).

I almost think the UN would work better if it used two houses similar to the US. One house being the current general assembly organized by recognized borders - the other organized by recognized nation-people. Even if a lot of cultural groups wouldn't have the same status as the governments of a recognized state, as defined by land, they would have some kind of avenue to address their concerns and the number of ongoing civil wars might start to decrease instead of experiencing the slow, but steady increase that has been going on since World War II.

The problem with that idea is that three Security Council members (US, Russia, and China) are among the leaders in the number of ethnic nation-peoples within their territorial borders (generally, the larger the area of a country, the more culturally distinct nation-peoples that reside there). It would be a major pain. The US wouldn't appreciate the Sioux bringing local US-Sioux greivances to the UN. Likewise, the other countries with a large number of ethnic groups wouldn't appreciate having local concerns aired at the UN.

 

[quadraphonics]

Read your history. Until 1971 the ROC was the sole representative of all of China at the United Nations.

Which is exactly the opposite of recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation. At no time has the UN ever recognized Taiwan as anything other than a part of China; they've just switched which people they recognize as representing all of China.