Peking issues invitation to Taiwan’s sportsmen

Press, 14 November 1981, Page 23

Peking issues invitation to Taiwan’s sportsmen

NZPA-Reuter Peking The All-China Sports Federation and the Chinese Olympic Committee have issued Peking's most-detailed invitation so far to Taiwanese sportsmen to play in tournaments in China. Peking Radio said the two State-controlled groups had issued the invitation after a joint meeting. This followed Communist Party overtures to Taiwan's President Chiang Ching-Kuo, urging him to agree to talks on peaceful reunification, and inviting him to visit the mainland even if negotiations were unacceptable.

The five-point offer to Taiwanese sportsmen said that they were welcome to take part in any Chinese national competition in 1982 and ’ in the fifth Chinese National Games, to be held in Shanghai the following year. Taiwanese spectators were also invited to watch. It invited Taiwanese coaches in baseball and athletics to teach on the mainland and offered in return to send Communist coaches to Taiwan. The joint resolution also invited “leaders of Taiwanese sporting circles" to China for consultations on sports exchanges and offered

to send people to Taiwan instead if requested. In the case of five international tournaments due to be held in China next year, the resolution said that China had the right as host nation to field two teams. It therefore proposed that two separate teams take part in the tournaments, one representing China and the other Taiwan. The new proposals were the latest in a barrage of Communist overtures to the nationalists, ranging from banking to mountaineering. Taiwan said that it would negotiate only if Peking renounced Communism.