After losing to the United States at the Tokyo Olympics in nearly every metric, China’s state media published a manipulated Olympic medal count in which they included both Taiwan and Hong Kong to pad their results.
In Tokyo, the United States topped China with 39 gold medals to 38, 41 silver medals to 32, 33 bronze medals to 18, with 113 total medals to China’s 88.
In an effort to boost China’s numbers, China Central Television tacked on the medals earned by Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, bringing their gold medal count to 42, silver medal count to 37, and bronze medal count to 27, for a total of 106, Taiwan News reported.
A graphic of the inflated totals circulated on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, according to the outlet. In the post, the state media wrote, “Congratulations to the Chinese delegation for ranking first in gold medals and the total number of points.”
Taiwan News said comments below the post blasted the Chinese state outlet for the manufactured numbers.
“Delete it, don’t hack China. Each representative team should be listed with its own medals,” one comment stated.
“Don’t humiliate yourself, little pink,” another wrote.
“What song was played when Taiwan won?” a third commenter asked.
“Show some backbone,” another said.
Last week, China Daily correspondent Chen Weihua criticized an image on Twitter that showed the United States was ahead in overall medal count but behind the communist nation in golds.
“U.S. media always finds a way to put [the United States] on top,” he wrote, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
According to the New York Post, the International Olympic Committee requires Taiwan to compete in the Games as “Chinese Taipai” in an effort to appease the Chinese Communist Party, which claims Taiwan is part of China.
In June, 16 advocacy groups in Taiwan urged the sovereign nation to join 11 Western countries and parliaments in passing a resolution asking their governments to withdraw from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The group also called on the International Olympic Committee to relocate the Games, in addition to asking the public to boycott any brands that sponsor the event.
“Having athletes compete peacefully inside a venue while the most unsportsmanlike enslavement of an entire society is being played outside would be the ultimate irony,” Shih Yi-hsiang, head of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, told an online news conference.
“China has instituted a surveillance system to transform the Xinjiang region into a prison without walls for an entire population,” said He Chao-tung, the president of the Taiwan East Turkestan Association, which campaigns for the rights of Uyghurs.
“Today, on International Olympics Day, Taiwan can still speak freely, so it should stand on the same side as international freedom, human rights, and justice,” he said. “[We] call on Taiwan’s parliament to pass a resolution to boycott the Winter Olympics as soon as possible.”
