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

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

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

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

After winning gold medal, Wang Chi-lin took to his Facebook p 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 or hand, his Chinese opponent, Li Junhui, took to his Weibo p 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

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

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

(Im Credit: MngTingYu/Twitter)