Hong Kong’s weightlifting and powerlifting body has apologised after its chair referred to competitor “countries” at an event that included Taiwan and Hong Kong. It comes after the government urged an in-depth investigation on Friday owing to the “suspected violation” of the one-China principle.
Last Monday, the Hong Kong, China Weightlifting and Powerlifting Association chair Josephine Ip told crowds at the Asian Equipped Powerlifting Championship and Asian University Cup opening ceremony that “lifters and officials from 13 countries” were taking part.
“The statement is grossly inconsistent with the fact that delegations from Hong Kong, China and Chinese Taipei participated as regional teams,” a government press release said on Friday. “It gives rise to suspected violation of the one-China principle.”
See also: Explainer – Is Taiwan a country? The self-ruled island’s disputed status
Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China, having been handed back from British rule in 1997. Meanwhile, the Republic of China (ROC) government has ruled Taiwan since 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II. The ROC authorities fully retreated to the island in 1949 as the communist People’s Republic of China defeated them in the Civil War, taking control of the mainland. Beijing has since claimed democratic Taiwan as one of its provinces – under its one-China principle – threatening to unify it by force if necessary.
At sporting events, Taiwan is often referred to as “Chinese Taipei.”
A ‘misunderstanding’
The government urged an in-depth investigation and plan of improvement from the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, with a report demanded by this Wednesday.
In a Chinese press statement, the association said it submitted a report to the Olympic committee, adding that Ip’s speech was not intended to reference Hong Kong independence. “During her speech, chairwoman Ip discovered that the script did not match the actual number of participating teams. She also felt that the sentence was too long. So she simplified the sentence to ‘this time, we have lifters and officials from 13 countries’… She mistakenly omitted ‘regions’ and created a misunderstanding. This was a serious oversight.”
They said that the association supports and upholds the one-China principle and Basic Law, adding that Ip will be more cautious in the future.
The Hong Kong Weightlifting and Powerlifting Association was the subject of a police investigation in December 2022 when the now-illegal pro-democracy protest song Glory to Hong Kong was played at a sporting finale instead of the city’s official national anthem, China’s March of the Volunteers.
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