YOUTH GAMES: The city urged the East Asian Olympic Committee to respect the rights of athletes, saying that doing otherwise would go against the Olympic spirit
Taipei Times
Date: Jul 25, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter
The East Asian Olympic Committee yesterday announced that it has revoked
Taichung’s right to host the first East Asian Youth Games due to “political factors” after the city had already spent nearly NT$677 million (US$22.04 million) on preparations for the event.
The government denounced what it called China’s “barbaric” interference in the committee.
The decision was made at a provisional committee meeting in Beijing yesterday, reportedly due to pressure from China, which is unhappy about a referendum proposal to rename Taiwan’s national sports team from “Chinese Taipei” to “Taiwan” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The committee is comprised of representatives from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Japan and Guam.
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