Winter Olympics: Taiwan speed skater draws ire at home for donning China team outfit

Huang Yu-ting, one of four athletes competing in Beijing Games under the Chinese Taipei flag, says the suit was a show of friendship with a Chinese competitor
Online commenters, politicians and public figures accuse Huang of lacking political common sense and suggest she lose team accreditation

Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

Lawrence Chungin Taipei

Published: 7:00pm, 3 Feb 2022

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Taiwanese speed skater Huang Yu-ting is facing a backlash on the self-ruled island after she wore a Chinese team outfit during a training session in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics.

In a video clip posted on her Instagram account, the 33-year-old is seen dressed in the Chinese team suit in a practice session for the Games, which start in Beijing on Friday.

The clip shows Huang wearing a tight black outfit with red sleeves and “China” emblazoned on the back. She posted the clip on January 23, saying that if nothing went wrong, she was “going to leave for Beijing in less than a week”.

Speed skater Huang Yu-ting in the suit she said she was given to her by a friend on the Chinese team. Photo: Weibo

Huang, who won gold in the women’s 1,000-metre race at the 2021 International Skating Union’s Four Continents Championships, is one of four athletes competing for Chinese Taipei at the Winter Olympics.

The clip has gone viral since Tuesday, with Taiwanese netizens commenting that her outfit was an “eyesore” and flooding her social media networks with negative comments and hate speech.

“It is ridiculous. If you want to represent the Chinese team, get out of Taiwan,” one internet user wrote.

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Many other commenters aired their opinions.

“Don’t you know you have become a propaganda tool of China?” read one comment.

“What you wear represents where you are from. Don’t you have common sense at all?” another said.

And: “You must have made a great fortune from China for wearing that outfit.”

In response, Huang said the outfit was from a friend who was on the Chinese team.

“We met several years ago and trained together in Germany. She later returned to China and I went to the US. We met again this year and that was the gift from her,” she said on the post.

She also posted a clip from the music video Shake it off by Taylor Swift, including the lyrics “And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”, on her Instagram account.

“My dear haters, this song is for you,” Huang wrote.

That triggered more negative comments, prompting her to delete the video and the post from her Instagram account on Wednesday night.

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In a separate post on Facebook, she thanked those who supported her and said she had deleted the clip because there were too many unnecessary messages.

“Sport is sport and in the world of sports, we do not differentiate nationalities. After the Games, we all are good friends,” she said, adding that she did not want to draw focus away from the Winter Games in Beijing. She also asked that people in Taiwan support other members of the Taiwan team, even if they did not like her.

Taiwanese author Wu Hsiang-fui wrote a Facebook post saying that Huang represented Taiwan and was using the island’s funds and resources in training but that her actions were unacceptable.

He asked that the island’s authorities recall Huang and revoke her accreditation for the Games and he called for the heads of the education ministry and sports administration to take responsibility and step down.

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Cheng Yun-peng, a legislator with the ruling, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, said Huang should have the political common sense to be aware that wearing the Chinese team outfit would make her a tool for Beijing.

“All Chinese team players know perfectly well the consequences of this,” he said, hinting at the potential fallout if a China team member wore a Chinese Taipei uniform.

Lin Che-hung, deputy director general of Taiwan’s sports administration, said Huang had already explained the outfit issue to the administration, saying she wore it simply to show her friendship with the Chinese competitor and had no political motive.

He said that since Huang had deleted the clip and apologised for not being sufficiently sensitive, the administration would not revoke her accreditation to attend the event.

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The island’s Chinese Taipei Olympics Committee said it had reminded Huang of the sensitivity of the issue and as she was preparing for the Olympics, the committee asked her to focus on the Games.

Huang will compete in the women’s 1,500-metre event on Monday, the 500-metre race on February 13 and the 1,000 metres on February 17.

She represented the island in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and at the 2013 World Games in Cali, Colombia, she won gold in the 1,000-metre sprint and a bronze in the 500 metres.

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National identity is a highly sensitive political issue between Taiwan and the mainland, which regards the island as part of its territory to be brought under its control, by force if necessary.

Taiwan can only compete under the name Chinese Taipei because of persistent pressure from Beijing – a move often cited as one of the reasons for growing anti-Beijing sentiment on the island. Other reasons include frequent military intimidation and a diplomatic squeeze by Beijing on Taipei.

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