Asian Games bans ROC flag from baseball game
By Wu Meng-ju and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, in TOKYO, with staff writer
The Asian Games banned the Republic of China and Imperial Japan’s Rising Sun flag at yesterday’s baseball super round, following an incident on Friday, when a staffer demanded that a spectator put away a cloth that read “Taiwan,” saying that the competition bans political messages.
The incident occurred during Taiwan’s game against China, which the former won 9-1.
The Asian Games’ rules stipulate that fans watching a competition may bring flags or emblems representing the teams, but offer no guidance on objects bearing Taiwan’s name.
A sign banning the Republic of China and the Rising Sun flags from the Asian Games is pictured yesterday at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Baseball Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
A video of the incident showed a staffer insisting that displaying the word Taiwan is political and was a cause for removal from the event, at which point Taiwanese spectators began to collectively chant “Team Taiwan.”
The video showed several Taiwanese fans pointing to the flag of China and saying they consider it to be a political symbol.
The Taiwanese fan stopped displaying the cloth and was not expelled from the venue.
The Asian Games’ organizers did not issue a statement regarding the ban, although previous displays of the Rising Sun flag had sparked complaints from Chinese and South Korean fans due to the banner’s association with Japanese imperialism.
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