HE WORLD MASTERS GAMES, which are being held in Taipei and New Taipei, have come under criticism over a number of controversies. The sporting event is distinguished from other sporting events of its kind in that there is no age limit for participation, and it is open to individuals of all skill levels.
As is perhaps unsurprising for Taiwan, some of these controversies are linked to China. Promotional merchandise, souvenirs, and gifts for the games, including watches and mugs, have been found to suspiciously resemble Chinese products or are labeled as manufactured in China, rather than in Taiwan. Likewise, gift products and merchandise have been accused of lacking labeling information, such as about the safe temperature range for the usage of plastic water bottles. The official app for the games has also been accused of being poorly designed.
That a number of souvenirs, promotional merchandise, and gifts were found to be Chinese-made occurred despite by-laws having previously been passed stating that such merchandise could not be made in China.
Much mockery online has been regarding the translation of athlete names on name tags, in that names have been strangely rendered into English through literalistic translations of Chinese characters. A man surnamed Wang, for example, had his name translated as King Next Day.
Indeed, the matter of incorrect name translation was brought up in sessions of the New Taipei City Council. When New Taipei mayor Hou You-yi was asked if he would go by “Monkey Friend One” in English, Hou declared that he could be referred to in English as “Monkey Friendship.”
Allegations have sometimes suggested that the name tags could have potentially been outsourced to a Chinese company disguising itself as a Taiwanese company. Specifically, the translations appear to be the result of Chinese AI translation tools such as DeepSeek and Baidu, which have also led to concerns about personal data being routed through Chinese data infrastructure.
Other criticisms return to the facilities for the games. In particular, facilities have been accused of not having been cleaned beforehand for usage or being in disrepair. Lockers, for example, were found to be broken and unusable or full of trash.
The mayoral administrations of Taipei and New Taipei are KMT-controlled, which is partly why allegations that the World Masters Games used Chinese products are sensitive. Taipei, under the mayoral administration of Chiang Wan-an, has continued to carry out controversial city-based cross-strait exchanges between Taipei and Shanghai, during which Taiwan is framed as part of China.
Indeed, in even the World Masters Games, Taiwanese athletes have competed as “Chinese Taipei”, the name in which Taiwan generally participates in international sporting competitions, despite that the World Masters Games occur in Taiwan. This occurs even for athletes from outside of Taipei.
At the same time, more generally, cost-cutting has sometimes pushed Taiwan toward the use of Chinese companies, which can undercut Taiwanese companies in costs. This even occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, with members of the “National Team” of Taiwanese companies found to have passed off Chinese-made masks of inferior quality as Taiwanese masks.
With the Lai administration having become more restrictive in approving travel by Chinese politicians to Taiwan during the Taipei city government’s exchanges with Shanghai, in refusing to approve visas of personnel it states to be redundant, some controversy took place regarding the Lai administration’s approvals of Chinese athletes who traveled to Taiwan.
Though there were questions raised ahead of time about whether the Mainland Affairs Council would approve travel for the more than 500 Chinese nationals who traveled to Taiwan for the World Masters Games, only the travel of two Chinese nationals was banned. This was over the possibility that the two would seek to carry out political activities intended to reinforce China’s claims over Taiwan during the World Masters Games, in staging a political stunt.
Other controversy stemmed from a disinformation social media post made by an individual surnamed Huang claiming that the Taiwanese flag would be banned at the World Masters Games. As this is untrue, Huang has since been taken in for questioning.
Either way, many of the controversies regarding the World Masters Games to date show how sports are strongly linked with Taiwan’s national identity issues. Though this is the case when Taiwan participates in international sporting competitions, such as the Olympics, this is also the case for sporting events that take place in Taiwan. The World Masters Games are no exception.