The National Games and National Identity in China by Liu Li Fan Hong

Author:Liu Li, Fan Hong [Liu Li, Fan Hong]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Asia, China, Sports & Recreation, Cultural & Social Aspects
ISBN: 9781138628199
Google: HNwZnQAACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2017-01-15T04:59:26+00:00

A diligently organized Taiwan province delegation by the Chinese government

Henry Kissinger said that, ‘Whatever the cost, China will fight rather than give up what it considers Chinese territory’.39 Taiwan’s reunification concerns the most fundamental of China’s vital national interests and Chinese national feeling, and it is ‘a principal issue of national unity, sovereignty and territorial integration of China’.40 Taiwan is a typical example of Chinese humiliation because it was invaded and bullied by Western imperialist countries and Japan in history. For its legitimacy and authority, the Chinese government treated Taiwan as a local province belonging to the PRC and framed its determination to ‘liberate’ Taiwan from the control of Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist Party.41 In addition, Taiwan had its geostrategic significance as a bulwark against imperialists, the United States and Japan.42 In the PRC’s early years, the CCP conducted many favourable proposals for the aims of the Chinese nation’s unification, and among them ‘liberation of Taiwan’ was regarded as one of the manifestations of the ‘one China principle’ for national security and territorial integrity.43

Accordingly, sport became a useful vehicle to make the new Chinese government’s standpoint towards Taiwan.44 With permission of the Chinese government, the SSM and the Organizing Committee of the Third and Fourth Games in 1975 and 1979 tactically organized a Taiwan province delegation to compete at the National Games. However, the Taiwan province delegation was made up of Taiwanese compatriots who resided in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and overseas, rather than athletes chosen by the Nationalist government in Taiwan. The Chinese government seized the opportunity to publicize Taiwan as being part of China for the past 1,000 years and to show that Taiwan’s division from China was temporary.

With support of the Chinese government, a founding meeting of the Taiwan province delegation for the Third National Games was held in the Beijing Hotel on 23 August 1975. About 500 people attended the inaugural meeting, including officials from the SSM, PLA and Organizing Committee of the Third National Games, members of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), along with 279 athletes and representatives in the Taiwan province delegation.45 Cai Xiao, the head of the Taiwan province delegation, represented the Taiwanese compatriots to address:

the establishment of Taiwan province delegation declared Chairman Mao Zedong and the Chinese government’s concern about 16,000,000 Chinese people in Taiwan… the involvement of Taiwanese athletes at the National Games indicates that Taiwanese are blood compatriots of the big family of Chinese nation of all ethnic groups and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the inviolable territory of China. We believe that these sporting competitions and all kind of activities during the games will enhance the kindred feelings between our compatriots in Taiwan and the mainland and will play a positive role in the socialist revolution as well as sport development in the motherland.… We firmly believe that with the rising patriotic sentiment among our compatriots in Taiwan and mainland, the reunification of our motherland will be realized soon.

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