Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Simon Liu/Presidential Office/CC BY 2.0
THE PAN-BLUE CAMP has seen some criticisms for celebrating recent sports wins by Taiwanese athletes at the World Baseball Classic qualifiers earlier this month. Namely, this occurs even as the KMT and TPP have sought to cut government spending–even when this affects funds for athletes.
The popularity of sports is at an all-time high in Taiwan. Baseball has long been popular, as a Japanese colonial legacy that took on further significance for Taiwan during the Cold War, with a string of Little League wins by Taiwan in the 1970s. Namely, even as Taiwan found itself with increasingly fewer allies, sports was still a way of representing Taiwan on the world stage–even as Taiwan was forced into playing by the name of undignifying names such as Chinese Taipei. This was all the more so for baseball, which continued to be the most significant sport in Taiwan.
In recent times, Taiwan was the world victor at the Premier12. This has been termed the most significant baseball win in Taiwanese history. It may not be surprising, then, that in the wake of this win, politicians rushed to express support for Taiwanese athletes and congratulate them with social media posts.
Indeed, in past years, the two political camps both found unity in calls to upgrade Taiwan’s Sports Administration to a full-fledged government. In 2021, KMT legislators Hung Meng-kai and Wan Mei-ling were among those to make such a proposal.
Still, current celebrations of Taiwan’s sporting achievements by pan-Blue legislators take place in context of unprecedented cuts to government spending called for by the KMT. 34% of operation expenses available to the government are to be cut. This includes slashing the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by one-half in order to undercut diplomatic engagements, cutting the budget of the Ministry of Culture in such a manner as to undermine multilingual programming, as well as key defense programs such as drone development and Taiwan’s domestic submarine program. It proves unusual that the KMT aims to slash the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Digital Affairs, Mainland Affairs Council, and Ministry of Culture but establish a Sports Ministry.
Likewise, one notes how unusual issues continue to plague sports in Taiwan. Taiwan’s baseball team at the World Baseball Classic, for example, lacked any athletic trainers. Though teams at the World Baseball Classic are given 39 passes, 28 for players, and 11 to be used based on how each team sees fit, Taiwan had no athletic trainers present while other teams that Taiwan is up against have had them. Athletic trainers are responsible for treating player injuries, and other physical issues while in competition.
Photo credit: 象心力/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
Sports in Taiwan have long been accused of concealing a culture of abuse and corruption. This goes back to when the KMT held power in Taiwan as the sole permitted authoritarian political party.
During this time, serving as an official in sporting associations was used as a sinecure position. Individuals appointed to such positions frequently used their positions to enjoy elite privileges at the expense of athletes. As such, sporting officials have been accused of actions including taking bribes to influence the selection of athletes, favoring individuals with close ties to them, and receiving kickbacks from corrupt sponsors. Moreover, there are reports of sporting officials using their position to coerce athletes into sleeping with them, threatening to prevent them from competing in international competitions otherwise. Although changes were made to the Sporting Act to prevent graft in past years, athletes have alleged that this is insufficient to prevent nepotism.
Even on the world stage, this has continued to be the case. In 2021, controversy broke out after Olympic athletes were made to fly economy class for the three-hour flight to Tokyo, rather than in business class as they had been promised, while officials and doctors also traveling with them to Tokyo were put in business class. After arriving in Tokyo, athletes found that they had been housed in hotels they found to be substandard, while officials were housed in another, supposedly more luxurious hotel.
There has been a pattern of retribution from officials against athletes that speak up against the conditions they face. This has included Tai Tzu-ying, Taiwan’s world badminton champion, who previously spoke out against being forced to wear ill-fitting and uncomfortable attire from sponsors chosen by sporting bodies, hindering her performance. Otherwise, athletes have stated there is a general lack of transparency about what costs they will be made to foot and which the government will, even in cases when they are willing to foot the bill themselves. This is accused of masking graft, as in players being charged exorbitant fees to participate in international competitions.
Efforts for sports reform have been called for in past years by young athletes, organized through groups as Fair Game! TAIWAN! But efforts to push for change in sporting organizations were also stymied through the use of apparently fake members to influence voting. For example, sports organizations suddenly saw fees for membership raised from 1,500 NT to 2,500 NT and a sudden influx of 110,000 applications out of 170,000 applications shortly before submission deadlines in January 2019. The influx of applications is thought to have involved stolen IDs, meaning that many applications were fake. Such practices remind of KMT vote-buying practices during the authoritarian period.
Indeed, if the pan-Blue camp now backs efforts to upgrade the Sports Administration to a Ministry of Sports, it is to be cautioned this does not mask an attempt to escalate the graft that takes place in Taiwan through sporting institutions. This is to be seen.