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The International Olympic Committee
(IOC) has cancelled the plan of the Olympic torch relay passing through
Chinese Taipei, which was announced by a spokesman of the Organizing
Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG) at the press
conference held in Beijing on Sept.21, 2007.(Xinhua Photo)
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BEIJING, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The International
Olympic Committee (IOC) has cancelled the plan of the Olympic torch relay
passing through Chinese Taipei, which was announced by a spokesman of the
Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG) on Friday.
The spokesman said that on Thursday, Tsai Chen-wei
from Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee said in a letter to BOCOG that the Chinese
Taipei Olympic Committee would not have further discussions with BOCOG on the
issue of the Olympic torch relay passing through Chinese Taipei and thus closed
the door of the discussion.
BOCOG expresses its deep regrets that the Olympic
torch relay in the end will not be held in Chinese Taiepi and the high
expectations of the Taiwan compatriots to pass the Olympic flame will not be
realized, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said the responsibility for this
entirely rests with the Taiwan authorities.
"The Taiwan authorities have violated the regulations
of the 'Olympic Charter' and take the opportunity to promote political
propaganda. The Taiwan authorities set up barrier over the agreed route of torch
relay, which directly resulted in the abortion of the plan," said the spokesman.
It's the first time for an Olympic committee to turn
down the arrival of Olympic torch relay.
The BOCOG announced on April 26 that the 2008 Olympic
torch relay will pass through 135 cities all over the world. The planned137,000
kilometers route includes a stop at Taipei before the torch arrives in Hong
Kong, Macao, and a score of Chinese mainland cities.
The relay route had been approved by the
International Olympic Committee after the two sides across the Straits reached
the agreement.
BOCOG ponders revision of planned torch relay route for 2008 Olympics
BEIJING, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing Olympic Games organizers announced on Friday that they will make some changes to the planned route of the torch relay after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) cancelled the Taipei stop.
Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG), said the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee's refusal of the torch relay may force them to revise the planned route which has been approved by the IOC. Full story
