Taiwan’s inclusion on torch relay route acceptable: Chang

Organizers of the 2008 Beijing Olympics said Thursday night that the torch relay will start from Beijing on March 31, 2008 and cover 22 overseas cities on all the five continents and 113 cities and regions in China.

Taipei will be one of the 22 overseas cities through which the torch will pass, said Jiang Xiaoyu, a deputy chairman of the Beijing Olympics Organization Executive Committee.

In response, Premier Chang that the plan, which designates Taipei as an overseas city, is acceptable to Taiwan as it does not downgrade Taiwan’s sovereign status and is in line with the Olympic spirit.

Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Chen Ming-tong said both Taipei and Beijing are just “one step” away from signing an agreement for Taiwan to be included in the torch relay.

According to an announcement made by the organizers on April 26, the torch relay route would cover 85,000 miles and last 130 days. They further said that Mount Everest would be included on the relay route and that the torch would arrive back in Beijing Aug. 8, 2008 for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Fifteen of the 22 overseas cities on the route would be in Asia.

Taiwan rejected that plan on the grounds that it included Taiwan as China’s first “domestic” stop and would have had the torch arriving in Taiwan from Vietnam and heading on to China controlled Hong Kong.

The arrangement was viewed by Taiwan as an intentional move to downgrade its sovereign status.

The MAC had insisted that four prerequisites be met before the torch relay could pass through Taiwan: that both sides follow IOC protocol and regulations; that there should be consent by the Taiwan government over the issue; that Taiwan’s sovereignty should not be downgraded; and that all relevant activities should be conducive to future interaction between the two sides.

A total of 78.5 percent of the Taiwan people will agree to the government’s allowing the Olympic torch to come to Taiwan if China does not try to downgrade Taiwan’s status by designating the country as a stop on the domestic relay route, according to the results of a survey released by the MAC.

The survey found that if Beijing refers to Taiwan’s Olympic team as “Chinese Taipei,” instead of “Taipei, China,” 72.7 percent of the respondents think the government should let the Olympic torch enter the country.

Chinese Taipei is Taiwan’s official title for its Olympic membership.

If Beijing includes Taipei on the “overseas” relay route, 58 percent will welcome the torch’s arrival, the survey shows.

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