Taiwan’s Olympic torch goes up in flames
BEIJING: China’s Olympic torch relay continues to inflame passions.
Travelmole Asia last week reported that four US activists were arrested at Mount Everest after calling for Tibetan independence and protesting against the Beijing Olympics.
Chinese officials want to lift the Olympic torch to the top of Everest – the world’s tallest mountain on the border between Tibet and Nepal – in what would be the longest, biggest and highest relay in Olympic history.
China also wants to take the torch to self-ruled rival Taiwan, but Taiwan has slammed the move as politically insensitive.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said the route, which would see the torch pass from Vietnam to Taipei, then on to Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland, was unacceptable.
It accused Beijing of wanting to mislead others into thinking Taiwan was part of China.
“This is an attempt by China to engineer the relay route so that Chinese Taipei is included in China’s domestic relay route, thereby obviously undermining our sovereign status,” said Tsai Chen-wei, head of Taiwan’s Olympic committee.
Taiwan has insisted it would welcome the torch only if it arrived and left Taiwan from a third country or area. It said Hong Kong and Macau were unacceptable.
Ian Jarrett
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