On July 24, 2012, just before the Olympic torch was about to relay across London, the national flag of Taiwan was removed from Regent Street in the United Kingdom capital. All other national flags are still hanging to welcome representatives to this summer's Games from across the world.
Sigh…I was happy for a while.
London prepares to welcome the world for the start of the Olympics.
I'm curious to know whether this is London officials panicking, or whether Chinese authorities warned them to take it down. Either way, I think it deserves some attention. All of the Olympic coverage has totally ignored it.
Though didn't offer any explanation, yet according to Regent Street Association, they'll replace it with the Olympic flag used to represent Taiwan.
I have to say, this is really lame and any real explanation will be better.
Melissa Alexender's protest photo, via Facebook.
This matter has been raised and I can confirm that the Chinese Taipei Flag will be going up tomorrow evening.
I can ensure you that all competing nations flags will be displayed.
We don't want the Chinese Taipei flag but our national flag! Regent Street is not covered by the Network of London Olympic Route neither part of Olympic Stadium, hence, there is no reason to refuse the placement of Taiwanese national flag!
Meanwhile, designer Tammy Lin wrote a light-hearted post making some creative suggestions to rectify the situation, such as smuggling the Taiwanese flag back onto the street, making the flag into a 3D advert or turning it into a QR code.
I’m a Brit living in Tainan, Taiwan and am equally angered by the Regents Street event. The sinister aspect is that even London may already be ruled from Beijing despite the UK government’s attempt to impose martial law for the duration of the games – The Royal Air Force has a shoot-on-sight policy over the city and and security is being handled by the ministry of defence! Do they now get their orders from Beijing too? At least Taiwan has its own President and government – like any other sovereign republic!
Great post, I-fan! Thank you for bringing this to Global Voices!
ssadfIt’s just sad that they would make a mistake like that. As a Taiwanese who spent more time abroad than in my homeland, seeing our national flag in a foreign country is always prideful. But the fact that they would put it up and take it down is distasteful.
I know my politics which is more reason why mistakes like this should not be made, either put the politically correct one up or keep the correct one up. Obviously the people up at RSA don’t know their politics as much as they say they do. But I do appreciate their recognition for putting the correct flag up there in the first place.
Hi John, thanks for your message. The change of ROC national flag reminds me what happened four years ago in San Francisco. To avoid the protesters (against China), the San Francisco police made the torch relay a joke. At that time, I asked myself if San Francisco government gets their orders from Beijing as well. I believe similar questions will be raised every four years.
Paula, thanks for your message!
Chinese government is illegally taking Taiwanese as Chinese and that is why Taiwanese were left out from all the international organization, even WHO during SARS. Justice for Taiwan. If you consider yourself as Taiwanese, do not let what happen during SARS to happen again.