Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned incidents in which signage supporting Taiwan was snatched from spectators watching badminton at the Paris Olympics, saying it contravened the spirit of the Games and freedom of speech.
The incident took place during the men’s doubles match on Friday, when Taiwan’s Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin advanced to the final after beating Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
A unidentified man in a pink shirt was seen seizing the sign from a female spectator — later identified as Yang Chih-yun (楊芷芸), a Taiwanese studying in France — before being removed from the stands by security. The sign was cut out in the shape of Taiwan proper and said: “Go Taiwan” in Mandarin.
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The “malicious individual” who forcibly took the sign has “seriously violated the cultural spirit of the Olympic Games, showed contempt for the rules and harmed freedom of speech,” the ministry said.
Although the Republic of China (ROC) flag is prohibited, there is no explicit ban on items that have the word “Taiwan” written on them, the Taipei Representative Office in France said.
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Taiwanese athletes compete in the Olympics under the name “Chinese Taipei.”
Yang said whenever she cheered “Taiwan go” during the match, the man in the pink shirt shouted “Chinese Taipei” or “Taipei team.”
In a separate incident during the same game, an Olympics staff member was “overzealous” in removing a green towel that read “Taiwan In,” the ministry said adding that it has instructed officials to issue a complaint to the Paris Games’ organizing committee.
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In yet another incident on Friday, two Reuters journalists saw a spectator with a green banner reading “Taiwan go for it” being bodily removed up a staircase, shouting, while Taiwanese shuttler Chou Tien-chen was playing.