President Ma Ying-jeou said Beijing’s goodwill is helpful for the long-term development of cross-strait relations.

Taiwan threatened to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics if China continued to refer to the island as “China Taipei” instead of “Chinese Taipei,” an official Olympic designation for the island in international sports events.

“China Taipei” is considered to carry implications that Taiwan is part of China.

Late Thursday night, the Chinese government-run China News Service (CNS) started addressing Taiwan as “Chinese Taipei.”

Ma said Taipei was very careful in handling the matter.

“We fight for what we should be fighting for,” said Ma.

Ma’s spokesman Wang Yu-chi said Taipei has noted the goodwill shown by China.

Lai Hsing-yuan, chairwoman of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), welcomed the change that CNS made.

“It is always welcome when China instigates turnarounds for a more positive direction,” Lai was cited by Taiwan’s state-run Central News Agency as saying.

But Lai said that “we will still keep our eyes open toward further developments in the days to come.”

Sports Affairs Council Minister Tai Hsia-ling also took the CNS move positively.

“Judging from the latest development surrounding the designation issue, I don’t think the Beijing Olympic officials — the hosts of the 2008 Olympics — will refer to Taiwan’s Olympic team as ‘Zhongguo Taipei,’ which means “China Taipei’ and implies that Taiwan is part of China, in Olympic competition events,” Tai was cited by CNA as saying.

But Tai pointed out that if a Taiwanese athlete wins a gold medal, the host authorities should play Taiwan’s “National Flag Song” while the Chinese Taipei flag is being raised.

“If the Beijing Olympic hosts fail to do that, both the Sports Affairs Council and the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee will launch protests on the spot and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will deal with it,” she added.

Taiwan is not allowed to play its national anthem in international sports events, and so the “National Flag Song” is played at events instead.

But the opposition Democratic Progressive Party said the government should not become complacent.

DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said the government must take a careful look at Beijing’s attempts to “dwarf” Taiwan in the international community.

Controversy surrounding Taiwan’s designation in the Beijing Games have loomed large over the past week since two Chinese media outlets — Chinese Central Television and Xinhua news agency — referred to the Taiwan Olympic team as “Zhongguo Taipei” (China Taipei) instead of “Zhonghua Taipei” (Chinese Taipei).

The “China Taipei” designation was considered by the MAC and the DPP as Beijing’s schemes to downgrade Taiwan’s status.

MAC Chairwoman Lai described the move Thursday as “regrettable” and “difficult to understand,” after a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Wednesday that Beijing would not ban its media from calling the Taiwan Olympic team “Zhongguo Taipei.”

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