Taiwan Looking To Bid For 2020 Olympic Games

Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa reports that Taiwan’s new sports minister vowed Tuesday to promote professional sports and to bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

Taiwan’s President named Yang Chung-ho as the new director-general of the Council on Physical Fitness and Sports replacing Chen Chuan-shou who resigned over Taiwan’s poor performance at the Asian Games.

Yang said, “I have just visited Beijing and seen the improvements it has made due to its preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games. I am in favour of Taiwan bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

“We haven’t decided which of our three biggest cities will bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games. It is up to them to compete on a fair basis, but whichever city will make the bid, I give my full support”, he said.

Yang said bidding to host the Olympic Games can boost the city’s development by 30 years. “The return is 20 times more than the investment”, he said.

But DPA reports that some Taiwan sports officials are worried that China might sabotage Taiwan’s effort for political reasons because China sees Taiwan as its breakaway province and bars Taiwan from joining international organizations, requiring Taiwan to attend or host international sports events under the name of Chinese-Taipei to show that Taiwan is part of China. Write or read comments about this article

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