Republic of China at the Olympics

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This article is about the team organized by Republic of China to compete in the Olympics from 1924 to 1948. For the team now representing the Republic of China on Taiwan, see Chinese Taipei at the Olympics. For the team representing the People's Republic of China, see China at the Olympics. For the Olympics in China, see Chinese Olympics.
Republic of China at the
Olympics
Flag of the Republic of China.svg
Flag of the Republic of China
IOC codeROC
NOCChinese Olympic Committee[a] (1922–1960)
Republic of China Olympic Committee[b] (1960–1981)
Medals
Gold
0
Silver
0
Bronze
0
Total
0
Summer appearances
  • 1924
  • 1928
  • 1932
  • 1936
  • 1948
Winter appearances
Other related appearances
 China (1952-)
 Chinese Taipei (1956-)

The Republic of China (ROC) participated in its first Summer Olympics in 1932 under the name of China. After the Chinese Civil War, the ROC retreated to the island of Taiwan in 1949, and only Taiwan-based athletes have competed on its behalf since then. In 1971, the ROC was expelled from the United Nations, but was permitted to compete under its official name, flag, and anthem in the 1972 Winter, 1972 Summer, and 1976 Winter Olympics. It was denied official representation in the 1976 Summer Olympics and boycotted it as a result. The 1979 Nagoya Resolution allowed the ROC to compete under the deliberately-ambiguous name "Chinese Taipei"; it protested against this decision and boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics as well, but has competed under this name since the 1984 Winter Olympics.

The Republic of China took part in the Opening Ceremony of the 1924 Summer Olympics, but its four athletes, all of whom were tennis players, withdrew from competition.[1]

Medal tables[]

See also: All-time Olympic Games medal table

Medals by Summer Games[]

Games Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank
United States 1932 Los Angeles 1 0 0 0 0 –
Germany 1936 Berlin 54 0 0 0 0 –
United Kingdom 1948 London 31 0 0 0 0 –
Total 0 0 0 0 –

Nagoya Resolution[]

Overview[]

After the ROC was denied official representation in the 1976 Summer Olympics and the PRC was represented in its place, the Nagoya Resolution in 1979 allowed the two teams to participate together by designating that the Republic of China would be identified as Chinese Taipei and any identifying flag, anthem, or emblem used in Olympic activities would be without symbolism to show the existence of the ROC and demonstrate its sovereign nation status.[2]

A number of previous IOC actions enabled the IOC to include both the PRC and the ROC in Olympic activities despite the attempts by the former to argue that the ROC identity be as a subordinate branch of the PRC NOC. The PRC objected to the ROC NOC having that designation because it included the word "national," and the PRC did not recognize it as a nation. The solution to that issue was the IOC Charter provision that a country or nation designation could also include geographical area, district, or territory. The 1997 revision of the IOC charter reinforced the legitimacy of some form of a ROC NOC being recognized, as the IOC Charter (Article 31.1) was clarified to define the term "country" as an independent state with international recognition.[2]

Also, a retroactive action to remove recognition of an existing NOC was prohibited by a 1996 IOC Session action.[2] Nevertheless, the PRC sought to equate the status of the ROC NOC with that of the Hong Kong NOC (in line with the PRC's assertion that neither Hong Kong nor Taiwan are independent states), and the IOC charter prohibited any subordinate territory from acting on its own without authority from its country's NOC. The ROC NOC reasserted its independent spirit by bidding for the 2010 Asian Games and the Olympic Games. Both were rejected, but the ROC bid for the World Games in Kaohsiung was accepted. It is interesting to understand that according to the policy that the PRC attempted to reinforce, Macau would have the right to an IOC-recognized NOC; nonetheless, despite the ROC and Hong Kong NOC's existence and recognition previous to 1997, Macau's NOC has never been recognized by the IOC.[2]

The ROC NOC took the issue to a Swiss court, but the case was dismissed.[3][4][5]

Resolution language: French and English versus Chinese[]

The Nagoya Resolution was officially written in French and English,[6] creating a deliberately ambiguous term ("Chinese") that the PRC could interpret as the sovereign state (e.g. as in "Chinese embassy") while the ROC could interpret as the culture (e.g. as in "Chinese architecture"). However, no such ambiguity exists in Chinese, causing the PRC's Central Propaganda Department[2] to translate it as 中国台北 Zhōngguó Táiběi (literally "Taipei, China") while the ROC translated it as 中華台北 Zhōnghuá Táiběi (where "Zhonghua" unambiguously refers to the culture, not the state). There was no problem when the ROC and PRC were involved in the same event in other countries, as the name would be spelled according to the host language. However, the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing resurrected the issue, making its translation in Chinese a quandary.

According to He Zhenliang, the IOC member from the PRC, during negotiations, the ROC refused the "Zhongguo" name interpretation on principle due to the direct implication that the team would be a local part of China. Eventually, the PRC agreed that the ROC name did not imply that there were two Chinas or one China, one Taiwan.[2] He also stated that due to the language barrier, he was "greatly frustrated" in getting the IOC President to understand the importance of the argument over the one-character difference.

Torch relay route[]

The ROC sought to differentiate itself from the PRC when the torch relay route was announced for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The ROC insisted that the route both entering and exiting the ROC could not be directly from or to PRC territory, as that might give the impression that the ROC was part of the PRC,[2] while the PRC demanded that the ROC's national flag, emblem, or anthem not be used along the relay route. No agreement was reached and so the 2008 torch relay did not include Taiwan.[7]

Notes[]

  1. ^ See Chinese Olympic Committee#Timeline concerning Olympic recognition and Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee#History.
  2. ^ See Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee#History.

References[]

  1. ^ M. Avé, Comité Olympique Français. Les Jeux de la VIIIe Olympiade Paris 1924 – Rapport Officiel (PDF) (in French). Paris: Librairie de France. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 May 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2012. 39 seulement s’alignérent, ne représentant plus que 24 nations, la Chine, le Portugal et la Yougoslavie ayant déclaré forfait.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g http://hnn.us/article/51398#sthash.04ZCBpL4.dpuf; George Mason University History News Network: Susan Brownell, "Could China stop Taiwan from coming to the Olympic Games?"; original source: Minutes of the Executive Board meeting, Nagoya, Japan, 23–25 October 1979, p. 103; viewed August 26, 2014.
  3. ^ The Times, January 17, 1980
  4. ^ "Taiwan requests meets court folly; Swiss gives Peking go-ahead". The Spokesman Review. 1980-01-16. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
  5. ^ "Swiss court dismisses Taiwan case". Bangor Daily News. 1980-01-16. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
  6. ^ http://www.wfctq1.com/n322/n382/c953251/part/597954.pdf
  7. ^ Ryan, Andrew (September 21, 2007). "Taiwan, China Fail to Reach Agreement on Olympic Torch Route". VOA News. Archived from the original on 2007-11-09. Retrieved 2020-08-29.

External links[]

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