IOC: Olympic torch won't enter Taiwan

Bickering between rivals China and Taiwan forced Olympic officials to scuttle plans to include Taiwan in the torch relay for next year's Beijing Olympics, with both sides accusing each other Friday of trying to play politics with the event.

After 10 months of squabbling during which Beijing announced Taiwan's participation in the relay only to have Taipei deny it, the International Olympic Committee notified both sides Thursday that their talks had reached a dead end. It said that the Taipei leg would be dropped.

Recriminations burst into the open Friday. "China was not acting in good faith," Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian said.

The Beijing Olympic organizing committee accused Taiwan of setting a "vile precedent" by refusing to participate and injecting politics into an event that symbolizes Olympic ideals.

"Responsibility for the torch relay not going to Taipei totally lies with the Taiwan authorities for creating political hurdles, trying to politicize sports and not heeding the wishes of the people of Taiwan," Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing organizing committee, told reporters in Beijing.

Disagreements over the route recurred throughout the negotiations. But in the end Jiang and Chen suggested the talks foundered over Taiwan's desire to fly its national flag during the relay — and Beijing's insistence that doing so violated long-standing IOC rules governing Taipei's participation in Olympic events.

Failure to compromise on the torch relay underscores the deep mistrust between Beijing and Taipei, which split 58 years ago amid a still unresolved civil war.

China's communist government has since sought to bolster its claims to the island by getting other countries to drop diplomatic relations and force Taipei out of the United Nations and other international organizations. In a sign of Beijing's influence, Taiwan is allowed to take part in the Olympics on condition it not use its national flag, seal or anthem at Olympic events, competing as "Chinese Taipei."

Meanwhile, the democratically governed island under an assertive President Chen has fought back, trying to fortify Taiwan's independent status and resist Beijing's claims of sovereignty.

The collapse of the torch relay talks dealt a blow to the IOC, which has tried to portray the Olympics as a way to overcome political differences between even the most intractable of foes.

Taipei's exclusion also divided public opinion in Taiwan. Shen Sung-hsu, a 44-year-old shipping company worker in Taipei, said China had been high-handed by dictating the torch route. "The host does not necessarily have the right to decide where the torch will go," he said.

Wang Feng-chen, a 34-year-old coffee shop manager in Taipei, however, blamed Chen, saying his dislike for China prevailed, "so he stopped the torch from coming."

Jiang, the Beijing Olympic committee official, said Taiwan was still invited to compete in the Aug. 8-24 games, but with Taipei ruled out, the torch would not stop elsewhere in Taiwan. It has yet to be decided, he said, whether the torch will now travel directly from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Hong Kong, with the originally planned Taipei stop in the middle removed.

Throughout the negotiations, Chen's government disliked Taipei being sandwiched between Vietnam and Chinese-controlled Hong Kong, fearing that Beijing was using it as a way to blur Taiwan's separate status. In April, Beijing announced its grandiose plans for the relay, including stops on Mount Everest as well as Taipei, only to have Taiwan immediately deny an agreement.

Jiang said the Beijing Olympic committee made it clear that Taipei was among 22 cities on the route outside the mainland in the plan that was approved by the IOC and that Taipei Olympic officials agreed to. Jiang suggested that Taiwan Olympic officials ran into interference from political leaders who overrode the agreements made with Beijing.

"The Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee had an obligation to coordinate with the relevant authorities to promise that any flags, emblems or songs not conforming with the regulations will not be used during the Olympic torch relay," Jiang said.

China: Olympics face terrorism threat

China believes terrorism is the biggest threat facing next year's Olympic Games and has called for closer international cooperation to prevent possible attacks, state media said Tuesday.

"Although the general security situation for the Beijing Olympics remains stable, we still face the challenges of terrorism, separatism and extremism," Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang was quoted by the China Daily newspaper as saying.

"Terrorism in particular poses the biggest threat," Zhou told a security conference in Beijing on Monday, the paper said.

Zhou proposed more information sharing between international security forces and the establishment of an early risk warning mechanism, the paper said, without giving details.

Zhou's remarks appeared on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States — an event that helped dilute U.S. and other foreign criticism of China's heavy-handed tactics toward ethnic separatists it accuses of terrorism.

Experts say the terrorist threat to the Olympics is relatively low, but warn that Beijing faces a growing long-term threat from Islamic separatists among the Uighur population in western China's Xinjiang region.

However, only one or two terrorist groups are capable of carrying out attacks in northeast Asia, and their ability to operate within China's tightly controlled society is very limited, said Singapore-based terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, author of the book "Inside al-Qaida — Global Network of Terror."

"The threat (to the Beijing Olympics) is medium to low. The threat from the outside is very low," Gunaratna said.

However, Gunaratna warned Beijing's counterterrorism capabilities remain relatively weak, especially in its understanding of groups based outside its borders. "I expect they'll improve a lot before the Olympics," he said.

China has not joined in military operations in Iraq or Afghanistan, and has not so far been a target of al-Qaida or other Islamic terror groups.

It recently appointed a special envoy to focus on conflicts in the Middle East, but Beijing's involvement in the region has mainly been limited to economic contacts and calls for a negotiated settlement to the Palestinian question.

Although Uighur separatists have launched occasional bombings and assassinations, the last serious incidents were a decade ago.

In a rare publicized action, China said it raided a terror camp in Xinjiang run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, killing 18 militants it says had links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Interpol said Monday it would help China with its security efforts by sending a team to the Games that will have quick access to the agency's files on fingerprints, images and "wanted persons notices."

Before the Games, Interpol will provide "threat assessments" on issues relating to Olympic security and international crime, it said in a statement.

Liu Jing, a vice minister for public security, told the security meeting in Beijing that China hopes all the 135 cities on the Olympic torch relay route will also help safeguard that event, the paper said.

Liu was quoted as saying that some organizations and individuals were trying to politicize the Games and planned to disrupt the torch relay.

Mia Farrow, a U.N. goodwill ambassador, has labeled the Beijing Games the "genocide Olympics," and has launched her own Olympic-style torch relay through countries with histories of mass atrocities.

The Hollywood actress says China has impeded a solution to deadly ethnic conflicts in Sudan's Darfur region because of its oil interests in that country.

Taiwan leader riles China, U.S.

With a deafening roar, eight Mirage fighter jets shoot upward from the darkened runway at Taiwan's Hsinchu Air Force Base, armed with a deadly array of missiles and a mission to knock out incoming Chinese warplanes.

It's only a simulation, of course, but the tensions are always real, and lately have ratcheted up over an ambitious political gambit by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian that has rattled both China and the U.S., Taiwan's closest ally.

At issue is Chen's plan for a public referendum next year on Taiwan seeking entry to the United Nations. Beijing views the referendum as a direct challenge to its claim that Taiwan is part of China.

No one expects war anytime soon, but Chen's move worries U.S. officials enough that they have publicly criticized it. The United States is wary of getting dragged into a scrap between a democratic friend and its giant neighbor across the Taiwan Straits.

Chen's initiative is a "mistake," Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said last month. Seeming to support China's view, he said the referendum would be "a step towards ... a declaration of independence of Taiwan," and urged Taiwanese authorities to "behave in a responsible manner."

China hardly wants war either. That would cast a giant shadow over its economic leap forward and next summer's Beijing Olympics. But ignoring Chen would give new impetus to Taiwanese independence — a prospect Beijing abhors.

The controversy boils down to a name.

Taiwan has applied for U.N. membership before — more than a dozen times since it was expelled from the world body in 1971 when the China seat was transferred to Beijing. But except for a failed attempt this year, it always did so under its official name — the Republic of China.

That's what Gen. Chiang Kai-shek called the island when he and his Nationalist forces fled there in 1949 as Mao Zedong's Communists took control of China.

Mao and Chiang hated each other, but they agreed on one thing: There could only be one China. Chiang was no less vehement than the Communists in resisting any notion of an independent Taiwan. Many of those who laid the groundwork for Chen's Democratic Progressive Party once served in prison for advocating independence.

Now Chen wants the electorate's permission to apply for U.N. membership under the name Taiwan — a crucial difference because it implies a rejection of the "one China" concept.

The referendum would ask whether the territory should apply for U.N. membership as "Taiwan." The Mainland Affairs Council, which implements Taiwan's China policies, published a poll in August putting support at more than 70 percent.

Any name would be symbolic. The U.N. Security Council would have to approve Taiwan's membership, and China has a veto.

The "aim is to provoke conflicts from the two sides, cheat Taiwanese people to get more votes and realize plans of Taiwan independence," said Yang Yi, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office.

Yang's reference to votes reflects a widespread Taiwanese perception that Chen, although a longtime supporter of independence, is holding the referendum mainly because he thinks it's a huge vote-getter.

The referendum is expected to take place during elections to choose Chen's successor in March, and it puts the main opposition Nationalist Party in a bind — to oppose the measure and lose credibility, or support it and appear to be a DPP clone.

For the time being, Nationalist presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou has adopted a middle ground, supporting U.N. membership, but as the Republic of China.

Taiwan specialist Shelley Rigger of Davidson College in North Carolina said U.S. officials aren't panicked, but they are concerned. She says many of them feel Chen cares more about the election than about preserving his relationship with the United States.

"The worry is that he will do things to rally his hard-line base — including deliberately provoking Beijing," Rigger said in an e-mail interview. "I also think there is growing concern that Chen is trying to box in his successor, to force the next president to continue his policies."

China takes gymnastics gold at worlds

The Chinese powered their way to another men's gymnastics world championship Thursday. Can anyone catch them in time for the Olympics in Beijing? Hardly looked like it with the way they performed and everyone else stumbled.

Led by their champion, Yang Wei, China routed the competition for its third straight worlds gold medal — and eighth overall — scoring 281.9 points to beat silver medalist Japan by a whopping 4.875 and bronze medalist Germany by 8.375.

Most people thought Japan might challenge the Chinese for first, but instead, Hiroyuki Tomita and his team looked sluggish — a disappointing setback for the world's other men's gymnastics superpower.

The United States was in the mix, sitting in fourth place with two events to go and with decent hopes of completing what seemed like an impossible journey — from 13th place to a bronze medal in the span of a year.

But David Durante and Sasha Artemev each flopped off the high bar. They scored 13.575 and 13.750 to fall to sixth place, and their last rotation on floor turned into what they originally hoped it would be — a nice learning experience, but nothing more.

They did a nice job on those floor routines to get themselves back into fourth, with a chance to take the bronze if somebody on Germany's last rotation fell. But after Marcel Nguyen got through his routine cleanly, and with superstar Fabian Hambuechen still to go, American team coordinator Ron Brant was already standing in the portal clapping, telling his coaches "We got fourth."

Impressive, really, for a team who's big goal at these worlds was simply to finish in the top 12 and earn a spot in the Beijing Olympics. They did so in style two days earlier with a fourth-place showing in qualifying.

With Olympic champion Paul Hamm and his brother, Morgan, returning, maybe they can contend for second or third in China next year.

First place already seems locked up.

The rout at this year's worlds began early. China opened on the floor with Chen Yibing performing an amazing strength move, holding his body, flat as a board, above the mat — a plank position with his hands about even with his hips.

At pommel horse, it was that event's gold medalist, Xiao Qin, propelling himself by slapping his hands on the horse, then grabbing the handles and kicking his legs higher than anyone in the meet, the crowd getting louder with every helicopter-like scissors kick he added.

Later in the meet — with the Chinese going on parallel bars while the Germans were next to them on high bar — Yang, Xiao and Huang Xu overcame a rather tacky distraction from the public-address operator, who blared loud music each time the Germans were done and celebrating but the Chinese were still in the middle of their sets.

Barely mattered. Even with Yang getting a little crooked on one of his handstands and taking two baby steps backward on his dismount, his show — and score of 16.1 — was still better than what most of the guys were doing without any errors. It's why he's the reigning champion in that event.

The arena was loud thanks to Germany's success. The bronze was the country's first team gymnastics medal since 1991 worlds, shortly after the East and West reunited.

The crowd was roaring over Fambuechen's medal-clinching floor exercise, but the real show was still going on high bar, where Xiao was completing his team's final, precise routine on the sport's most nerve-racking event.

It was no problem, and when he finished, he stepped off and traded high-fives with his teammates in the corner of the arena.

Now that this team rout is over, the medal tally really begins.

Last year, China's men won five golds. This year, they have a chance for more. Yang will be favored in the all-around and on parallel bars. Xiao is a good bet to repeat on pommel horse. Chen will have a chance for another gold on still rings. Zou Kai had the best score on floor in qualifying.

And the list goes on. With this team, it always does.