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Public cries foul in Games row
SOCKED:Lawmakers and the public alike expressed outrage
over Yang Shu-chun’s disqualification. Some politicians even set fire to South
Korean flags
By Vincent Y. Chao and Ko Shu-ling / Staff
Reporters, with agencies
Tung Chung-yen, a Democratic Progressive Party
candidate for Taipei city councilor, performs a skit outside the office of the
Sports Affairs Council yesterday in protest at its acceptance of the
disqualification of Taiwanese athlete Yang Shu-chun from the taekwondo
competition at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, on Wednesday.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Staff Reporters, with agencies
Taiwanese sports fans and lawmakers remained emotionally charged yesterday over
the disputed disqualification of Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君)
at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, with many accusing China of foul play.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, meanwhile, also came under fire
for issuing remarks deemed by many as a “weak response” to Yang’s
disqualification.
Yang, one of the nation’s gold medal hopefuls at the Games, had almost defeated
Vietnamese Vu Thi Hau in a women’s under-49kg bout on Wednesday when Asian
Taekwondo Union (ATU) vice president Zhao Lei (趙磊) called into question the
electronic sensors in Yang’s socks with 12 seconds left in the first round.
Footage of the match showed Yang was caught by surprise when she returned to the
ring after a technician had inspected her socks and was abruptly handed a 12-0
loss.
She then broke down in tears when her disqualification was announced. The judges
had ruled that her socks carried unauthorized extra electronic sensors behind
the heel.
Despite protests from the Taiwanese delegation, insisting the sensors were
carefully checked and approved before her match, the World Taekwondo Federation
(WTF) remained adamant on its ruling, suggesting that Yang had cheated and that
she and her coach would face further sanctions for staging a sit-in protest.
A post-match press conference deepened feelings of rancor, with Taiwanese and
Chinese journalists trading barbs as officials refused to translate questions as
to whether the decision had been politically motivated. Taiwanese perceptions of
foul play in the Yang decision were also fed by media reports that Zhao, from
China, was one of its authors. The event was eventually won by China’s Wu Jingyu
(吳靜鈺), who reportedly considers Zhao one of her mentors.
Yang, red-eyed and sleepless, said little yesterday, but some of her outraged
fans were more vocal.
Taiwanese netizens engaged in a barrage of criticism against the WTF ruling,
with new groups on Facebook in support of Yang attracting a large number of
people.
The controversial disqualification, however, appears to have helped bridge the
nation’s political divide after leading politicians from both parties angrily
decried Wednesday’s decision.
Lawmakers from both the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) pledged support for Yang in separate press conferences
held yesterday.
KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) announced the caucus has launched a signature
campaign in support of Yang, adding that the nation must stand up and fight for
Yang’s rights.
“Every signature symbolizes the gold medal awarded by the Taiwanese public to
Yang,” Lin said.
Suggestions by games officials that Yang cheated were a “disgrace to everybody
around the country,” DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) told a separate press
conference. “The responsibility should fall on the people that conducted the
checks.”
DPP lawmakers also delivered a strongly worded message against Sports Affairs
Council (SAC) officials who had accompanied Taiwanese athletes to the Games,
charging them with “being useless” and said they failed to step up for Yang
immediately after the ruling.
“A large number of officials attended the Games,” DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying
(邱議瑩) said. “But all they have done so far is appear at and partake in the
ceremonies when our athletes win. When Yang was disqualified, what did they do?
Nothing.”
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) also released a statement online, saying that
the entire public stood behind Yang, but also said that the government needed to
firmly stand up for Taiwanese interests.
“[This government], especially on sovereignty issues, has always deferred to
China and hasn’t emphasized our attitudes enough,” she said. “As a result, we
think that it is regrettable that frontline officials haven’t been speaking
strongly enough about this incident.”
After coming under criticism over its apparent silence on the matter, the
Presidential Office late on Wednesday night stepped into the emotional fracas
and demanded that the event organizers re-examine Yang’s case and offer a better
explanation.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said the president was
greatly concerned about what happened at the Asian Games and had instructed the
Executive Yuan and the SAC to urge the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee to do
its best to defend Yang’s rights.
Lo Chih-chiang added that Ma has requested government agencies to express their
firm position in that regard and demanded that the organizer conduct a thorough
investigation into the matter.
A large part of the criticism against Taiwanese officials was also directed at
Sports Affairs Council (SAC) Deputy Minister Chen Hsien-chung (陳顯宗), over a
“weak comment” in a press conference on Wednesday after the disqualification was
lambasted.
Chen said at the time: “We have to protest against the ruling, but sometimes
athletes can only swallow the result [unfair or not] and respect it.”
Approached by reporters yesterday, Chen apologized for not making himself clear
during Wednesday’s press conference.
“What I meant then was that [an athlete] could only then, at that moment,
temporarily accept the judges’ ruling because [his or her] protest was overruled
and that more protests would be to no avail as the judges insist on their
ruling,” Chen said, adding that his choice of the word “swallow” was a common
expression in the sporting world.
Widespread furor against the organizers, including WTF -secretary-general Yang
Jin-suk, of South Korea, also mounted yesterday, with a number of city councilor
candidates burning South Korean flags and vowing a boycott of South Korean
products.
Protesting loudly in front of the SAC headquarters, People First Party (PFP)
candidates burned small South Korean flags and smashed imported products on the
floor before being stopped by police. Reports also said that the security
presence in front of the South Korean representative office in Taipei had
increased yesterday.
Another event calling on supporters to show up at Taiwan Taoyuan International
Airport when Yang returns on Sunday night has also attracted more than 1,100
attendees.
One of Yang’s coaches, Liu Tsung-ta (劉聰達), said tournament officials had
excluded them from a technical meeting after the team protested the decision and
that the officials had said nothing to them since.
“It was just the referees who attended the meeting. We were excluded,” Liu said.
“Neither did they ask us to explain. They haven’t made any contact with us
since. They just disqualified us.”
According to Tsai Chih-fan (蔡智帆), manager of the company representing the
manufacturer of the electronic taekwondo protection equipment, the electronic
socks Yang was wearing were an old model where the sensors were glued to the
sock and not the new model where they are sewn on to the sock.
There wasn’t much difference between the two types, although new model is
superior to the old model, he said. Tsai guaranteed that the socks Yang used
were a model from a brand approved by the WTF and that they conformed to
specifications.
While Taiwanese government officials threatened to take legal action against the
decision, Chen Kuo-yi (陳國儀), secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Olympic
Association, said that certain preconditions must be met before filing for
arbitration.
Chen Kuo-yi said from Guangzhou that information about the incident had been
chaotic so far and that the Taiwanese team and the ATU have provided conflicting
stories. Taiwan will not be able to file arbitration before learning all the
details and facts, he said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) yesterday denied the conspiracy theory,
saying China did not “deliberately” report the questionable socks to the
referees.
Describing the incident as “purely a game,” TAO Director Wang Yi (王毅) said the
office did not wish to see the episode affect cross-strait ties and “Chinese
Taipei’s participation” at the Games. Wang added that they already negotiated
with “related units” and asked them to “give Taiwan a fair environment to
compete.”
“From the very beginning, we have been providing Chinese Taipei with the best
services possible,” he said.
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