Why is Taiwan called “Chinese Taipei” in the Olympics?

Over time, Taiwan has been called by a number of different names at the Olympic Games. This is due to its particular international status. Despite being a territory, with 23 million inhabitants, its own borders, currency and democratic government, Taiwan is not diplomatically recognised by a significant number of countries.

After the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, the Nationalists and their Republic of China government took refuge in Taiwan, while Mao’s communist forces founded the People’s Republic of China on the mainland.

Beijing’s communist leadership has never controlled Taiwan, but it still views the island as part of “one China” and has vowed to take it over one day, by force if necessary. Meanwhile, China has taken a number of steps to try to keep Taipei isolated on the world stage.

Taiwan’s Olympic journey over the years

In 1952, both Taiwan and China were invited to the Olympic Games. Both governments claimed to represent China, but in the end, Taiwan withdrew.

Four years later, Taiwan agreed to participate in the Olympics as “Formosa-China” – “formosa” for beautiful, which was the name given to the island by Portuguese navigators in the 16th century. However, Beijing boycotted those Games and withdrew from the IOC two years later.

When the IOC finally requested that Taiwan compete under this name in 1960, the then authoritarian government objected. This was because they wanted to be recognised as the Republic of China (ROC). The country participated in two more Olympic Games under that name (ROC) in the 1960s.

In the 1970s, countries gradually began to diplomatically recognize Beijing instead of Taiwan.

In 1972, Taiwan participated in the Olympics as the ROC for the last time. Four years later, it boycotted the 1976 event after the host country at the time, Canada, demanded it compete as Taiwan instead of the ROC. In 1979, they were suspended after the IOC recognized Beijing as China’s representative body.