There used to be a time when people could expect the news to be unbiased and untainted by political views and agendas. After all, being fair and unbiased was usually an unspoken promise of the news services. When news outlets started taking political slants and leanings, one could still count on watching sports news to escape from politics.
This past week in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, young athletes from all over the world are competing for the Little League World Series title. A dominant team from the port city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, has earned the right to play on this international stage, showcasing the baseball talent that the island of Taiwan often displays in international play. These hardworking kids earned the right to represent their city and their homeland in front of the world, especially if they win the International title this weekend. But because of sports news outlets like ESPN refer to their team as Chinese Taipei, it is hard to really know what city the members of this team represent.
For those who are uninformed, the team is from the large city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Taipei is the capital city of Taiwan. For their team to be referred to as Chinese Taipei, confuses the issue of their origin, and it smells of a well-known political agenda. That is like the LLWS baseball team from Texas being called something as ridiculous as American Washington DC.
Taiwan has sent many teams to the LLWS, and has been known for years in the USA as powerhouse Taiwan. It made most Taiwanese and Taiwanese-Americans proud to see their boys to achieve such a pinnacle of excellence in the great American pastime.
Many observant readers wonder why ESPN and other news outlets started to calling the teams from Taiwan, Chinese Taipei, when Taipei has nothing to do with the teams. Well, at least for this reader, there are still reputable sports news outlets with the integrity to stay out of the political game, like SportsIllustrated.com. They refer to the team of proud LLWS baseball players as Kaohsiung, Taiwan.