(Continued from last issue)
Crossing its fingers against political machinations, the Republic of China is looking forward to the Montreal Olympics in 1976 as an opportunity to display the athletic progress of Taiwan.
Chinese Communists kept the free Chinese team out of the Asian Games in Tehran this year. But the exercise of such discrimination was widely deplored by the federations making up the Olympic movement. The Republic of China is confident the International Olympic Committee will not allow itself to be manipulated into barring one team to permit the participation of another.
Athletes of Taiwan first came to world prominence with the decathlon feats of C.K. Yang, who finished second to Rafer Johnson in the Rome Olympics of 1960 and later set a world record.
Then came Chi Cheng, who ranked as the world's fastest female sprinter until muscle troubles ended her competitive career at the Bangkok Asian Games in 1970. She still holds several world records.
Golf has recently taken the championship spotlight. Hsieh Min-nan and Lu Liang-huan won the World Cup in 1972. Lu, a one-time runner-up in the British open, won three of ten championships on the Asian circuit in 1974. Kuo Chi-hsiung, who finished first in this year's India and China opens, captured the Asian circuit overall title.
Women golfers are holding their own with the men in winning championships. Miss Wu Ming-yueh won the Philippines open in 1974. She was only four strokes over par for 72 holes. Second and third places went to teammates. Miss Tsai Li-hsiang won the Jennie K. Wilson invitational at Hawaii last spring.
Team sports have received impetus from the successes of Little League and Senior League boys' baseball teams.
American critics spoke harshly of "professionalism" after Taiwan Little Leaguers won their fourth world championship in five tries at Williamsport, Pa., last year. The charge was quickly laid to rest by Little League investigators specially invited to visit Taiwan. They found that the Republic of China's only fault was an excess of enthusiasm.
Boys' baseball playing seasons were shortened and all regulations enforced to the letter. But there was no way to legislate against the high quality of play.
Taiwan is a land where boys can be out tossing the ball nearly every day of the year. Practice makes perfect. That and not any wrongdoing is the secret of the Republic of China's baseball success. The proof came in 1974 as the Taiwan boys swept all three titles in the world boys' baseball world - ages 9-12, 13-15 and 16-18.
Diamond fame also has accrued to Taiwan in the exploits of Wang Cheng-chih, known in Japan as Sadaharu Oh, the finest hitter ever to come out of Asia. Wang, who has a Chinese father and Japanese mother, plays for the Yomiuri Giants. Now 34 years old, he expects to hit more than 800 home runs before retirement. He is the highest paid professional athlete in Asia with an income of US$200,000 annually.
Basketball and soccer are popular spectator sports in the Republic of China.
Amateur cage teams draw capacity crowds of 15,000 to the Sports and Cultural Center in Taipei. The caliber of play is improving fast. Both men's and women's teams are contenders for Asian championships. The men's team finished third in the 1973 Manila tournament.
The Yatung girls' team toured the Americas in 1973 and Europe in 1974. Yatung won 39 of 47 games played in the United States and eight Latin American countries and 17 of 20 contests in seven European countries.
Soccer is played by high schools and colleges. Teams of the post-school level are not yet good enough for top flight international competition.
Men's and women's volleyball teams qualified for the world championships at Mexico City in 1974.
The Republic of China has already proved itself to be the country the Chinese Communists could not isolate.
Peiping was admitted to the United Nations in 1971.
From that moment forward, the Chinese Communists concentrated their international efforts on driving the Republic of China from the world stage.
Smiling diplomacy was a principal weapon. Many countries found the Peiping overtures irresistible.
But although exchanging ambassadors with the Chinese Communists, these countries left trade, cultural and social doors open to the free Chinese of Taiwan.
Foreign commerce of the Republic of China exceeded that of the Chinese Communists for the second straight year in 1973. Spectacular gains have been chalked up in trade with Japan, Australia and European countries which have recently extended diplomatic recognition to Peiping.
Premier Chiang Ching-kuo said the Republic of China was maintaining close and friendly relations with 128 countries, although the count of diplomatic exchanges stood in the 30s.
He attributed this to the free Chinese policy of friendship and good faith in its international dealings.
Some of the Republic of China's staunchest friends decided to recognize Peiping "because you can't ignore 700 million people." They presumed that the Chinese Communists had the reins of power firmly in hand.
The free Chinese government disagreed with this reasoning and turned its back on any thought of "two Chinas." So diplomatic breaks were often unavoidable.
But in its certainty that Communism could never be the wave of the Chinese people's future, the Republic of China has regarded these ruptures as temporary and is preserving people-to-people relations with countries whose governments have been drawn into the Peiping orbit.
Japan's recognition decision in September of 1972 was disappointing. The Republic of China was a generous victor over the Japanese at the close of World War II. Before Kakuei Tanaka, every postwar Japanese prime minister had attested to this.
Free Chinese friends of Japan and Japanese friends of the Republic of China quickly joined hands to prevent any hiatus in trade or other contacts.
The Republic of China established the Association of East Asian Relations in Tokyo and Japan opened the Interchange Association in Taipei. These offices have been conducting more business than the Chinese Communist diplomatic establishment in Tokyo and the Japanese embassy in Peiping.
Japan's repudiation of the civil air agreement with the Republic of China led to suspension of China Airlines and Japan Air Lines flights between Taipei and Tokyo in the spring of 1974. Other relations were not affected. Other airlines continued to bring hundreds of Japanese tourists to Taiwan daily. There was no discrimination against Japanese visitors or businessmen.
In the wake of the Australian Labor government's termination of diplomatic relations, the Australia-Free China Society established offices in Sydney and Taipei. The Taiwan office offers a full range of consular services.
Malaysia recognized Peiping in mid-1974 and consular offices were closed. However, Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Razak stipulated that travel and people-to-people relations with the Republic of China were to continue. The Taipei-Kuala Lumpur flights of China Airlines and Malaysia Air Service were not interrupted.
The Republic of China has trade, cultural and information offices and representatives throughout the world. These have helped to combat the isolation campaign of the Communists, especially in Europe.
Free China's closest friend and ally is the United States. President Nixon's trip to mainland China and American efforts to "relax tensions" with the Chinese Communists were not accompanied by any undermining of ROC-U.S. ties.
President Nixon took pains to stipulate that the United States was not going to turn its back on old friends in order to make new ones. His words were punctuated with the 1974 dispatch of a highly respected and widely experienced career diplomat to succeed retiring Walter McConaughy at Taipei.
Leonard Unger came from Thailand, where he had served as ambassador for more than six years. He was chief of the U.S. mission in Laos before that.
Washington-Taipei solidarity was expressed in other ways.
The United States opened a Trade Center in Taipei in recognition of the Republic of China's 12th place standing among its trading partners in 1973.
U.S. private investment in Taiwan exceeded US$400 million and showed no signs of diminishing growth.
Americans continued to make up the second largest foreign group (after the Japanese) among Taiwan tourists.
There was no diminution of the small American military presence in Taiwan. The U.S. planes withdrawn in 1973 and 1974 from Ching Chuang Kang Air Base at Taichung in central Taiwan had been involved in the shuttle to Indochina and Thailand. They were not connected with the defense of Taiwan.
The mutual assistance treaty between the United States and the Republic of China provides for assistance in the event of aggression. The United States maintains the Taiwan Defense Command under a vice admiral to assure quick implementation of the treaty terms.
Training assistance for ROC armed forces is provided by the American Military Assistance Advisory Group. Taiwan's prosperity has made it possible to terminate U.S. military grants. The United States still extends military loans, however, and makes older but still useful weapons systems available.
U.S. Air Force Phantoms were moved to Taiwan to fill the gap left by turnover of ROC F5 fighters to Saigon just before the Vietnam cease-fire. These and other U.S. military planes fly out of ROC bases.
Peiping had expected that the smiles addressed to President Nixon would lead to prompt closing out of the ROC-U.S. partnership. Some of the smiles turned to frowns when the Communists found out this was not to be the case. The welcome mat for U.S. correspondents was not often seen on the mainland doorstep in 1974. Marine Corps guards had to be withdrawn from the U.S. liaison office in Peiping. Chinese Communist press and radio resumed virulent attacks on the United States as an "imperialist superpower."
The Republic of China does not expect that the failure of isolation will persuade the Chinese Communists to live and let live until the Chinese people can decide China's future.
Free Chinese on Taiwan are keeping their eyes open and their powder dry. Americans stand with them. So, in the event of aggression, would many others who have chosen to extend recognition but not approval to the Chinese Communists.