No mainland teams at Taipei Universiade

Tsai’s policies seen as undermining cross-Straits communication

Taiwan media said the Chinese mainland will not send teams to attend the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade in August, a decision experts believe is related to Tsai Ing-wen’s refusal to recognize the 1992 Consensus which embodies the one-China principle.

The International University Sports Federation, or FISU, said that the Chinese mainland could not send teams to participate in the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade, because there is a schedule conflict between the Taiwan event and the mainland’s National Games as well as the National University Games, Taiwanbased media chinatimes.com reported on Friday.

It is the first time that the Chinese mainland will not participate in team sports of the Summer Universiade of FISU, chinatimes.com said.

Athletes from the Chinese mainland will still compete in individual events, for which the registration is due in June, the Taiwan News reported, quoting a Taipei Universiade Organizing Committee official.

Around 12,000 athletes from 165 countries and regions are expected to attend the event hosted by the Taipei administration.

The draws for nine team events, including basketball, soccer, volleyball and baseball, were held on Thursday, but teams from the Chinese mainland were not in them.

Taiwan media reported that according to the FISU, the Chinese delegation sent a letter stating that “China is willing to attend the Taipei Universiade, but unable to send athletes for the team events.” It did not provide any further reasons or explanations.

The General Administration of Sport of China on its website did not post any official note and couldn’t be reached for comment by the press time.

“It’s understandable and normal that schedule conflicts could lead to such abstentions, but Tsai’s policies on crossStraits issues have affected different aspects of exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan,” Zhu Songling, a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of Beijing Union University, told the Global Times on Friday.

“Time schedule might be the main reason, but the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) refusing to recognize the 1992 Consensus is also an objective reason for the absence of the mainland teams,” Lü Cuncheng, a Beijing-based Taiwan studies expert, told the Global Times on Friday.

“When the Kuomintang was leading Taiwan, the crossStraits relations were progressing in almost every area, but nowadays communications in many areas have been suspended,” Lü said.

Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen has refused to recognize the 1992 Consensus since taking office in May 2016, which has led to the suspension of cross-Strait communication mechanisms.

But the Chinese mainland will not give up the bottom line of the 1992 Consensus, and will be confident and patient in promoting the communication between the people from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, Lü noted.