LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced today that Taiwan can again take part in the Olympic Games after changing the name, flag and emblem of its national Olympic committee.
A brief IOC statement said the newly titled Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee can compete in future Games and other IOC-authorized activities with the same status as every other national Olympic committee.
The two-paragraph announcement made by IOC headquarters said:
'The International Olympic Committee and the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee announce that, based on the latest amended version of the Olympic Charter, they are agreed on the name, flag and emblem of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee.
'According to this agreement the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee is entitled to participate in future Olympic Games, as well as other activities sponsored by the IOC, like every national Olympic committee, with the same status and the same rights.'
Taiwan athletes were barred from the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, and the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because Taipei refused to change the name of its national committee from theRepublic of China Olympic Committee.
IOC spokesmen refused all further comment apart from the short formal statement.
They confirmed privately that an agreement was signed in the IOC building today by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and Shen Chia-Ming, president of the Taipei Olympic Committee.
'The President and Mrs. Monique Berlioux, the IOC Director, decided to make no prior announcement about the signing ceremony or to make any comment and that is all,' one official said.
The IOC gave no reasons for the secrecy.
'Sometimes one side is always more willing to talk than the other,' the official said when informed that more details were given in Taipei about what was going on at the IOC itself.
In Taiwan, an official announcement said the Republic of China Olympic Committee had agreed to change its name to the 'Chinese Taipei (National) Olympic Committee (CTNOC).'
The CTNOC would submit a specimen new flag and emblem for approval by the International Olympic Committee, a spokesman said.
The IOC will also assist CTNOC in its application for reinstatement of membership in the various international federations affiliated to the IOC, according to the agreement.
An IOC executive board meeting in Nagoya, Japan, in October 1979 ruled that Taiwan had to change its name to the 'Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee' in future Olympic activities as well as its national anthem and flag in order to facilitate mainland China's re-entry to the IOC.
Taiwan filed suit in a Lausanne court charging the IOC of acting illegally to admit China and force the island country to make the changes in the following months. But it failed.
The IOC, however, made some amendments in its charter after the case, to solve the two-China membership problem in early 1980.
The amendments included the requirement of all IOC members, instead of only Taiwan, to submit their delegation flags and emblems for approval. The IOC also declared all member countries would take part in the Olympic games in fair and equal competition without discrimination on grounds of race, religion or politics.
