Republic of China at the Olympics

The Nagoya Resolution brought about the participation of the PRC in Olympic Games activities 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.. 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, but although the ROC and Hong Kong NOC's existed and were recognized 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]

The official use of French and English to compose the Nagoya Resolution[6] made its translation in Chinese a quandary when it came to the 1990 Asian Games, as expressed by the IOC member from the PRC. He Zhenliang said that the PRC had always translated "Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee" as Zhongguo Taibei Aoweihui (中国台北奥委会) and the ROC translated it as Zhonghua Taibei Aoweihui (中華台北奥委會). There was no problem when both the ROC and PRC were involved in the same event in other Chinese-language countries, as the names would be spelled phonetically according to the host language. However, the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing resurrected the issue over the one Chinese character that was different in each name: the PRC translation of "Zhongguo" (中国) and the ROC translation "Zhonghua" (中華).[2]

He believed that the actual objection by the ROC was that acceptance of the PRC interpretation was tantamount to being "roped into a local organ of the Zhongguo Olympic Committee." He said that the PRC decided that the principle of "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan," was not involved and agreed to the ROC name interpretation.[2]

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] In addition, 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]