China's team forced to hear Taiwan's national anthem after losing Olympics Badminton final

The Taiwanese national flag anthem was played in front of Chinese athletes for the first time in Olympics history when Taiwan's Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin beat China's Liu Yuchen and Li Junhui in the men's badminton team finals. The Taiwanese pair beat the Chinese pair 21-18 and 21-12 to secure the gold medal and Taiwan's first-ever medal in badminton. The Taiwanese national flag anthem is of particular significance as China has prevented the national anthem from being played at Olympic competitions due to the political histories of the two countries.

Taiwanese national flag anthem plays in front of China's athletes

On Saturday, the Taiwanese athletes stood at the top of the podium for the first time in Olympic history as their Chinese opponents watched the Chinese Taipei flag rise to the tune of the Taiwanese national flag. The song is usually played after the national anthem during flag ceremonies. However, with China having prevented Taiwan from playing its national anthem at Olympic competitions, the anthem of the Taiwanese national flag was played instead.

After winning the gold medal, Wang Chi-lin took to his Facebook page to post a patriotic post. "I am Wang Chi-lin. I am from Taiwan," wrote Wang. His patriotic post went viral on social media as he gained over one million likes, 65,000 comments and 10,000 shares. On the other hand, his Chinese opponent, Li Junhui, took to his Weibo page to apologize for coming in second place. Junhui completed his post by writing, "Lastly, congratulations to 'China's Taipei Team,' and followed it with three Chinese flags.

Taiwan and China's politics over Olympics participation

The Republic of China (now Taiwan) first competed at an Olympics event in 1932. However, in 1975, the People's Republic of China applied to participate in the games and requested that the Republic of China be decertified in the process. After a high amount of controversy over whether the Republic of China could participate in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau proposed that it competed as 'Taiwan' as a compromise. However, the Republic of China government refused the terms and boycotted the games.

As a result, Taiwan was not allowed to compete in an Olympics event until the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had passed the Nagoya Resolution in 1979. However, Taiwan was required to use the name 'Chinese Taipei,' and it was barred from its national flag and anthem. In all the Olympic events since then, Taiwan has been forced to fly the Chinese Taipei Olympic flag and also play a modified version of the national flag anthem at medal ceremonies.

(Image Credit: MPWangTingYu/Twitter)