Chinese Taipei (TPE)

The Chinese Taipei National Olympic Committee was first formed in 1949 by members of the mainland Chinese committee who had fled to the island. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) official policy at this time was that the mainland Chinese Olympic Committee had simply changed its address and was now located on the island of Taiwan. For many years thereafter, the country was embroiled in a dispute with mainland China over recognition by the IOC (See China, People’s Republic of).

In October 1959, the IOC Executive Board recommended that the Olympic Committee in Taiwan be recognized as the “Olympic Committee of the Republic of China”, but it also insisted that, at the 1960 Olympic Opening Ceremonies, this team should march behind a banner reading “Formosa”. The banner eventually read “Taiwan/Formosa” but the placard bearer also posted a sign of his own, reading “Under Protest”.

The greatest controversy concerning the participation of the athletes from Chinese Taipei occurred in 1976 at Montréal. In 1970, Canada had given political recognition to mainland China. Only a few weeks before the Montréal Olympics, Canada’s government announced that it would not allow Chinese Taipei athletes to compete under the name of the “Republic of China”. This was in complete violation of the Olympic Charter and the contract Montréal had signed as host of the Olympic Games, in which it agreed to allow all eligible athletes to enter the nation with the use of the Olympic Identity Card. The United States Government protested vociferously, even threatening a boycott. Eventually, however, USA athletes competed, although Chinese Taipei refused to compete under any name other than the Republic of China. On 11 July, only six days before the start of the Olympics, the IOC Executive Board gave in and proposed to the full IOC that the island nation should compete at Montréal as Taiwan. The IOC approved this recommendation by 58-2, with six abstentions, but Chinese Taipei/Taiwan/Republic of China withdrew in protest and did not compete at the 1976 Olympics.

After competing for several years under the banner “China” or “Republic of China”, the IOC eventually banned the country from competing under this name. The current NOC was recognized in its present form on 26 November 1979, and on 23 March 1981 it signed an agreement with the IOC in which the NOC agreed to change its name to the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and compete under a new flag and emblem.

Taiwan/Chinese Taipei first competed at the Olympic Games in 1956, and since then has taken part at every Olympics with the exception of 1976 and 1980. It has competed in 14 Olympic Games under various names – the Republic of China (1956), Taiwan/Formosa (1960), Taiwan (1964-1972), and Chinese Taipei (1984 onwards). The nation has competed at eleven Olympic Winter Games: as Taiwan from 1972-76, and as Chinese Taipei from 1984-2010. The nation has won 24 Olympic medals, including five golds.

The most successful athlete is female weightlifter Hsu Shu-Ching, who won gold in 2012 and 2016. But by far the best known athletes from Chinese Taipei have been two competitors in track & field athletics, who did not win gold. C. K. Yang was runner-up in the decathlon in 1960, and also competed in 1956 and 1964, while Chi Cheng won a bronze in the 1968 80 metre hurdles, but was the top woman sprinter in the world in 1969-70.