Towel with “Taiwan” printed on it was confiscated during the male badminton doubles semi-finals - eviltoast
    • dovah@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      “Your people’s plea for liberation is making some of us uncomfortable.”

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Why was it confiscated? Because political messages aren’t allowed at the Olympics.

      Why is it political? Because China does not recognize Taiwan’s independence, and holds much influence over the games. Taiwan competes under the name of Chinese Taipei at the Olympics, and beat China for the gold in doubles Badminton.

      • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        It’s only political if you’re China. Everyone else is fine with “Taiwan”.

        The CCP has such an incredibly thin skin. This is such a massive show of weakness.

        • orcrist@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          It’s not about thin skin or weakness. The point is to show China’s power, to force international agencies to bow down. They did. The message was sent and received.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          It’s “political” in the sense that it involves politics. I think you mean to say that it isn’t “controversial” outside of China, but I would still disagree. A lot of countries are more influenced by China than Americans and Western Europeans, and are reluctant to use the name Taiwan or imply they are an independent nation.

      • Madison420@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Then the name china can’t appear on apparel either it being just as political in reference to the same situation.

        They only compete as Chinese Taipei because China has leaned on the commission to not recognize their nation even while self governed. It’s the UK telling Canada they can’t have Canadian merchandise and have to compete under their Commonwealth name.

      • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I’m also curious if there are size restrictions for signs? In my area it’s common to restrict signs to the size of a sheet of paper.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          That might be a rule. I know I’ve seen people waving flags, but I don’t remember seeing a lot of signs. Maybe?

          But it wouldn’t have mattered if someone had written the word Taiwan on a postcard; if they were holding it up during the games, it would have been confiscated.

          • Madison420@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            It’s neither it appears to be a soccer style scarf, I’m not sure of any clothes that are banned unless they show something independently unlawful.

        • birne@feddit.org
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          3 months ago

          No, I was in the arena (not in this session but in others) and the size was definitely not a problem. There were people with bedsheets that they wrote stuff on without anyone confiscating them.

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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    3 months ago

    I say we remove mainland China from the games entirely. They can control their own games they host and tell everyone they don’t like to fuck off (they won’t have to, nobody likes Beijing, nobody would go).

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    I live in Canada. If I can draw a parallel, would my sign be confiscated if it said “Manitoba”?

    At the very least, Taiwan is a district/state/province of China. It may also be a country, depending on who you ask, I suppose.

    So why did anyone else care enough to have security go and forcibly remove it from that person?

    Politics. That’s why.

    I bet they’d be fine with someone holding up a sign for “Zhejiang” or “Guangdong” or any other province.

    This is stupid.