Taiwan in Int'l Sports: Anthem Sparks Expansionist Ire, Red Sox Expand into Asia

Taiwan is making waves in international sports. First, the neandertals in Beijing reprimanded the government of Japan because the ROC anthem was played at a sporting event there. The Japan Times has the call:

China has lodged a formal protest with Japan over the playing of the Taiwanese national anthem at a basketball tournament in the city of Tokushima, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.

A Japanese diplomat in Beijing was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Friday and received a "stern representation" over the incident, Xinhua said.

"China expresses strong protest and demands the Japanese side to immediately take effective measures to remove this vile influence and avoid similar events from happening again," the report said.

Vile influence! Ya gotta love translators who translate what the Chinese speaker says, exactly. Speaking of expansionists, this Red Sox blogger reports on the Bosox expansion into East Asia:

The Red Sox have two extremely interesting players from Taiwan. They both have great promise, but are still far from the majors. Their names are Chih-Hsien Chiang and Che-Hsuan Lin. Expect to hear their names going forward as the Red Sox try to build a bigger influence in the East.

and on their prospects...

......For all the things that i don't like about him, he has been able to put up good numbers. Last year he had an OPS of .836 and this year at A ball he is hitting .737. The "Lebron of Taiwan" is a player that many are excited about. I would temper the excitement. The reality is far less than the reputation.

The man that i am more excited about is Che-Hsuan Lin. He is one year younger than Chiang and has far more athletic ability. He has great speed and a gun for an arm. Their are striking similarities to another Asian player, Ichiro. It was believed that if he had been in the draft he would have been a top 60 pick. He has already started Rookie ball, and has marginal success. For all of the down things, their are positive trends. He has been able to walk 13% of the time and shown an ability to steal bases.

Look for their faces on Everything in Taiwan in a few years, following the trail that Wang Chien-ming has blazed so successfully.

[Taiwan] [US] [China] [Japan]