The obstacle to china's participation in the 1952 Olympic Games was in essence a political problem---an obstacle put up by persons who were hostile to the newly-born People's Republic of China, which meant a blow to those who had backed the KMT government during the Third Revolutionary Civil War. After Chiang kai-shek's clique fled to Taiwan, they tried to create "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan" in international organizations.
Taiwan is one of China's provinces and must be reunified with the mainland. As to at what time and by what means, this is entirely an internal problem. Any attempt to create "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan" is blatant interference in China's internal affairs, a plot to split China into two parts, which will never be tolerated by the Chinese people on both side of the Taiwan Strait. This has thus become an international problem.
In May 1954, the IOC discussed the China problem at its 50th session in Athens. It organized the All-China Sports Federation as the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) by 23 votes for and 21 against. Yet the then IOC President Avery Brundage put the co-called "Olympic Committee of the Republic of China" into the list of IOC-recognized National Olympic Committee (NOCs), without bringing up the matter for discussion in the IOC. This was a sheer plot to create "two Chinas."
In June 1955, Rong Gaotang, Vice-President and Secretary-General of the COC, pointed out at the Third Meeting of the IOC Executive Board with the NOCs that the insertion of a sports organization in Taiwan into the IOC was illegal and in violation of the spirit of the IOC Charter and that the IOC should withdraw its recognition of this organization. Brundage turned down the COC's demand, saying that sport has nothing to do with politics. Actually, he was playing a most dirty political trick himself under the cloak of "apolitics," which made it all the more deceitful.
The COC had made earnest preparations for the 16th Olympic Games. It wrote letters to the sports workers and athletes in Taiwan Province, inviting them to Beijing to take part in the selective trials and form a united delegation to the Games, and ensuring them that they might come to the mainland and leave it of their own free will and that they would get every possible convenience and assistance from the COC.
In spite of repeated protests from the COC, such terms as "Peking China" and "Formosa China" kept appearing in IOC's documents. In such a situation, the COC announced that China would not participate in the Games.
In his letter to Dong Shouyi, Chinese member of the IOC, Brundage went so far as to say that Taiwan did not belong to China and that the natives of Taiwan were neither Chinese nor Japanese. Dong pointed out in his reply: "Taiwan has been China's territory since ancient times. This is a historical fact no one can possibly alter. It is true that Taiwan was under Japanese imperialist occupation during the period between 1895-1945. However, it was returned to China after the Second World War in accordance with the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation. "
Considering that Brundage was an American, Dong was patient enough to teach him something more about Taiwan in connection with American history:
"Taiwan has a population of more than eight million, of which over 90 per cent are descendants of Han nationals who immigrated to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland many centuries earlier than your ancestors to the continent of American. In addition to the Han nationals, there are some 200,000 Gaoshan compatriots, a national minority residing in Taiwan who, together with all the other ethnic groups in China, constitutes the big family of the Chinese nation. Starting from the fact that there are a number of minority nationals residing in Taiwan, you assert that the natives of Taiwan are not Chinese. Then, basing ourselves on the fact that America was originally inhabited by Indians, don't we have more reasons to assert that the Americans now residing in America are not Americans?"
But Brundage would not listen to reason. Under his manipulation, the IOC insisted on its mistake of recognizing one of china's local organizations -- a sports organization in Taiwan -- as a national Olympic Committee. Stepping into IOC's shoes, some international federations of individual sports, including football, athletics, weightlifting, swimming, basketball, shooting, cycling and wrestling, illegally recognized sports organizations of the so-called "Republic of China."
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