Taiwan accuses Qatar World Cup organisers of ‘scoring an own goal’ for changing its name

Taiwan accuses China of ‘bullying’ the organisers for the name change

Taiwan has accused China of “bullying” and has called out the organisers of the Fifa World Cup in Qatar for “scoring an own goal” after it listed Taiwanese visitors as coming from “Chinese Taipei”.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry on Monday hit out at the move and said organisers in Qatar were “unable to strictly reject the intervention of improper political forces,” reported Reuters.

The ministry added that China engaged in “bullying” and “has repeatedly and blatantly used its fictitious ‘one-China principle’ to continue to belittle Taiwan internationally and create the false impression that Taiwan that belongs to China”.

The ministry also replied to a tweet by the organisers of the World Cup with the accusations.

“And imagine a [Fifa World Cup] final in which all fans of the beautiful game could attend under correct country designations.

“Shame on authoritarian [China] for bullying [Qatar 2022] organisers into deleting democratic [Taiwan] & scoring an own goal. Shame!”

Taiwan’s outrage comes after Qatar changed its name on a dropdown menu on the application website for the “Hayya” card, required for all World Cup viewers visiting the country for the sporting event.

World Cup authorities reportedly changed Taiwan’s name to “Chinese Taipei” in the dropdown menu for the card.

The Hayya card website had originally listed Taiwan as “Taiwan, Province of China,” which implied Taiwan was part of China.

After protests from Taiwan’s foreign ministry last week, authorities replaced “Taiwan, Province of China” with just “Taiwan”.

Taiwan had then thanked Qatar for safeguarding the rights of Taiwanese fans, reported Focus Taiwan.

Monday’s condemnation from Taiwan’s foreign ministry came after the name once again appeared to have changed to “Chinese Taipei”.

While China claims Taiwan is a part of its territory with no right to independent recognition or state representation on a global stage, the island claims it is a separate nation.

Many countries, including Qatar, do not have any diplomatic ties with Taiwan and only recognise Beijing.

After Monday’s change, China thanked the Qatar government.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin expressed his appreciation for the Qatari government’s “commitment to the one-China principle and its handling of the issue in line with the established practice of international sports events”.