Taiwanese players at the 2018 Asian Men's U20 Volleyball Championship. Photo taken from ctvba.org.tw.
Taipei, Jan. 17 (CNA) Taiwan was not able to host the 2024 Asian Men's U20 Volleyball Championship due to China's objection on political grounds, Taiwan's volleyball association confirmed on Wednesday.
The Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) confirmed on its Facebook page on Tuesday that the tournament, originally scheduled to be held in Taiwan from July 20 to July 27, 2024, will be hosted by Indonesia in the city of Surabaya July 23-30.
The AVC's post did not offer any reason for the change, but a press release on the Iran Volleyball Federation's website, recapping an AVC online meeting held Jan. 15, said Taiwan made a decision to "withdraw" from hosting the tournament.
"The reason behind the withdrawal was China's objection, on political grounds, to its ability to participate in the competition," the press release said.
Participation in the competition was "a topic of relevance" because it is Asia's qualification tournament for the 2025 Men's U21 World Championship, the press release said.
Chinese Taipei Volleyball Association (CTVA) Secretary General Huang Kuo-kuang (黃國光) confirmed Wednesday that Taiwan would not be able to host the event because of China.
He said China filed a protest to the AVC in late December arguing that it could not send a team to the 2024 tournament due to "complexities in cross-Taiwan Strait political relations."
China asked for the tournament to be relocated to another country because it decided which teams from Asia would qualify for the U21 world championships in 2025, Huang said.
According to Huang, he told the AVC online meeting that Taiwan was ready to host the U20 men's championship, with the funding, manpower and necessary facilities in place and hoped the event could still take place in Taiwan as scheduled.
"In the end, however, [the AVC] still decided to hold [the championship] in Indonesia." It is regrettable but "there's nothing we could do," Huang said.
China sent a team to participate in the same tournament held in Taiwan in 2016, but since the Taipei 2017 Universiade, China has not attended any sports competitions held in Taiwan.
After Monday's AVC meeting, the AVC decided to let Taiwan host the 2024 Asian Women's Volleyball Challenge Cup, scheduled for May 25 to June 1.
Huang said there were no venues in Taipei available on those dates and that the CTVA was working Kaohsiung to make the necessary preparations, while vowing to continue efforts to host other international volleyball events.
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