TAIWAN has told the Australian Government its International Olympic Committee (IOC) member will vote for Sydney to host the 2000 Games. The undertaking was conveyed to the Government in Canberra this month but Taiwanese officials in Australia would not reveal the names of the parties involved. The head of Taiwan's unofficial embassy in Canberra, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Francias Lee, said yesterday China's proposal to include Taiwan in the Games was a propaganda ploy by a nation that had made Taiwan's Olympic participation ''a long nightmare''. Mr Lee, who was present at the meeting at which the undertaking was made to Canberra, said Australia had become increasingly supportive of Taiwan. He said of the support for Sydney's bid: ''It is only natural; they treated us better.'' China's plan to involve Taiwan in the Games had not played a part in their decision, he said. ''We don't care about this. We don't see they genuinely respect us, that is the main issue. ''If something takes place in Taiwan, it is their own propaganda, not showing genuine friendship. ''Mainland China has always put pressure on our international participation. Even our Olympic participation has been a long, depressing experience, and recently [so has] our participation in the United Nations.'' Mr Lee said a street festival in Sydney's Chinatown last Sunday in support of the city's Olympic bid showed most Chinese people in Australia were anti-communist. A Sydney Olympic bid spokesman said there would be no official comment on Taiwan's promise to Australia. But sources said the IOC vote was a secret ballot and there could be no guarantee Taiwan's member, Wu Ching-kuo, would vote for Sydney. China was still hoping to secure Taiwan's vote yesterday, according to Agence France Presse. ''We hope Taiwan can give its vote to us,'' the chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee, He Zhenliang, said. Meanwhile, despite a request by the head of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) that all members write letters to the IOC in support of Beijing's bid, Hong Kong will join Taiwan in not doing so - but for a different reason. ''Our position is already well-known in the world; there is no point in writing a letter,'' the president of the Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, and honorary life vice-president of the OCA, A de O Sales, said. Mr Sales came out in favour of Beijing's bid for the 2000 Games during the committee's annual spring dinner in February. He said the request, made by OCA head Sheik Al-Fahad Al-Sabah during a council meeting this week in Taipei, was merely a reiteration of the OCA's pro-Beijing position. There are 42 national Olympic committees in Asia, including places such as Bhutan, Brunei, Macau and five former Soviet states. But only 14 of the Asian committee members - including Taiwan but not Hong Kong - will be able to take part in the vote for the 2000 Olympics when the 91 voting members of the IOC meet on September 23.
