By DPA
Taipei : Taiwan and China were making the last-ditch effort Thursday to solve the dispute over the Olympic torch’s planned passage ahead of the Beijing Games.
Thursday was the deadline set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for a solution to Taipei’s objections that the torch not go to China or any of its territories after leaving Taiwan.
“If China wants to turn fair play into power play, we will not kowtow to Beijing and accept its terms,” Taipei cabinet spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey told reporters.
He said the chance for a breakthrough in the talks was unlikely.
In April, China unveiled the relay route for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, with the torch coming to Taipei from Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, before going to Hong Kong, which is under Chinese sovereignty.
Taiwan protested the arrangement, saying it makes Taipei the start of the domestic leg of the relay and downgrades Taiwan’s status as a Chinese province.
Taiwan demanded the torch go to South Korea or Japan, before entering China to show that Taipei is a stop on the international leg of the relay.
Taiwan later compromised by saying it would accept China’s verbal declaration that Taipei was a part of the international leg of the relay, but China recently demanded the removal of Taiwan’s national flags along the route of the relay in Taipei, adding another obstacle to the torch dispute.
Wu Ching-kuo, the Taiwanese member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said that if Thursday’s deadline passes without a resolution, China has to rearrange the relay route.
“The IOC has tried its best to mediate. If the deadline is passed, then it can’t do anything,” he said in an interview with the CTI TV.