Taipei backs China's Olympic bid, but has to consider co-hosting
Taipei backs China's Olympic bid, but has to consider co-hosting
TAIPEI (Agencies): Chinese Taipei gave its support Saturday to China's bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, but said it is too early to discuss Beijing's invitation to Taipei to co-host the global sporting events.
"We'd like to see Beijing win the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. As to Beijing's inviting us to co-host the Games, it's too early to discuss it," said Chen Ming-tong, vice chairman of the cabinet's Mainland Affairs Council.
Chen was responding to Friday's China Daily report which said the Beijing 2008 Olympic Bid Committee was thinking seriously about inviting Taipei to co-host the 2008 Olympic Games.
"The possibility of Beijing and Taipei co-hosting the Games exists, and relevant departments are studying the situation," the Beijing-based paper quoted a Bid Committee official as saying.
"If the 2008 Olympic Games are to be held in Beijing, some of the mass events like soccer, baseball and basketball may be held in Chinese cities including Shanghai and Guangzhou, but why not Taipei?" the official told the daily.
The Taipei press said Beijing's hint that it will invite Taiwan to co-host the 2008 Olympic Games is aimed at boosting Beijing's chances of winning the bid.
Beijing, Paris, Toronto, Osaka and Istanbul are vying for the chance to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will choose the winner in July 2001 in Moscow.
Taipei and China split in 1949 after the Chinese Nationalist government lost the civil war and fled to Taipei.
In Beijing, China will turn the capital city's historic Tiananmen Square into a beach volleyball arena if it wins the 2008 Olympic Games, the mayor of the Chinese capital said Saturday.
Mayor Liu Qi also told the official Xinhua news agency the vast square would also see the triathlon pass through if China was granted permission to stage the games.
On Wednesday the China Daily said officials were forced to act after rival Paris said it would locate the glamour sport -- with scantily-clad performers, thudding rock music and raucous atmosphere -- next to the Eiffel Tower.