Asiad dispute over Taiwan intensifies

Asiad dispute over Taiwan intensifies

HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuter): Top Chinese and Japanese sports officials struggled yesterday to avert a political showdown over Taiwan as athletes from 42 countries poured into Hiroshima for the Asian Games.

But Takayoshi Fukushima, secretary-general of the Games indicated there was unlikely to be any more concessions from Tokyo over the row, sparked by Beijing's opposition to an invitation to Taiwan's Deputy Prime Minister Hsu Li-teh to attend the event starting on Sunday.

Fukushima met Chinese deputy delegation leader Wei Jizhong on Thursday and insisted Olympic committees of participating countries had the right to invite three guests each to the games and that they could include political figures.

"There is a difference of opinion," Fukushima said.

He rejected Wei's contention that the head of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), the apex sports governing body in Asia, is against Hsu's presence at the games.

He said OCA President Ahmad al-Fahad of Kuwait was referring to his own personal guest list when he said there would be no political figures invited to the games.

In what appeared to be a bid to back up their case that Taiwan was not receiving special treatment, Games organizers announced the list of dignitaries coming to Hiroshima.

They included Iran's vice-president, vice prime ministers of Kazakhstan and Thailand, Indonesia's defense minister, Bhutan's foreign minister and Singapore's defense minister.

China on Tuesday angrily canceled a visit by one of its leaders to the games, but has decided against carrying out an earlier threat to boycott the quadrennial sports event.

Wei said he is not sure what China's reaction will be if Hsu attends Sunday's opening ceremony.

This brought a stern rebuke from the head of the Taiwanese delegation, Lin Jzy-ching.

"I don't know details of their claims. But it is very regrettable if China is still dissatisfied," Lin said.

Lin said Hsu was keeping to his scheduled arrival on Saturday, but he declined to reveal details of the trip. Athletes from the two countries are being kept apart.

A Games Village official said the Taiwanese and Chinese teams were in buildings separated by a road.

Athletes from the two countries were among hundreds entering Hiroshima since the beginning of this week.

Among the most keenly watched athletes will be "Ma's Family Army", led by Chinese supercoach Ma Junren.

Ma pledged on Monday that his team of world champion women's distance runners will attend the Games.

Typhoon

The weather meanwhile was causing some inconvenience with the approach of a powerful typhoon packing winds of up to 160 kph (100 mph) over western Japan, where Hiroshima is located.

But Hiroshima is not in the typhoon's direct path and the rain associated with it was good news for the Games.

The rain filled courses for the canoeing and rowing events, guaranteeing they would go ahead.

But it could affect the schedules of flights bringing in athletes and major guests, including Juan Antonio Samaranch, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"We are very much concerned," Fukushima said, but added that so far there had only been slight disruptions to the arrival of athletes.