Olympic torch may stall at Taiwan strait

China's plan to run the Olympic torch through Taiwan, announced in April, met with a quick refusal.

from the June 20, 2007 edition

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Taipei, Taiwan - An awkward hiccup has interrupted Beijing's otherwise smooth preparations for next year's Olympic Games: Taiwan has upset its plans for the Olympic torch's worldwide "journey of harmony" by refusing to host the flame.

The spat over the torch's route reflects the self-governing island's extreme sensitivity about its independence in the face of mainland China's insistence that the breakaway state is merely a renegade province. It is the latest in a series of recent rows that have soured the atmosphere in one of Asia's riskiest flash points.

Though backroom talks are underway to try to smooth over the dispute in a face-saving manner, officials here say they do not expect a solution.

"I am quite pessimistic," says Chen Ming-tong, head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council. "If Beijing makes no new proposals there is no way the torch can come to Taiwan."

That tough stance, says Taiwanese Information Minister Shieh Jhy-wey, is a deliberate bid to boost his country's self-image. "It is very important for Taiwan to be a bit of a troublemaker, in a positive sense," he argues. "It is saving us to base ourselves on our dignity, to say 'no' to the Chinese government."

Beijing Olympic officials were shocked, two hours after they announced the torch's 85,000 mile route last April, when Taiwan said it refused to be a part of it.

Chinese and International Olympic Committee officials had thought Taiwan was agreeable to a diplomatic fudge, under which the torch would travel from Vietnam to Taiwan to Hong Kong, which has been part of China for ten years.

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