Taiwan Rejects China's Torch Relay Plans

In this photo released by Lenovo the torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay is seen in Beijing, in March 2007. The torch, made from an aluminum-magnesium alloy, was designed by the Lenovo Innovation Design Center, which usually designs PC's for the computer maker. The torch was unveiled for the first time Thursday April 26, 2007, at a ceremony announcing the route for the Olympic torch relay. (AP Photo/Lenovo) (AP)

BEIJING -- China's grandiose plans for the torch relay, the high-profile prelude to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, have been engulfed in conflict by an old political rival _ Taiwan.

Within hours of Beijing's announcement Thursday of what would be the longest torch relay in Olympic history _ an 85,000-mile, 130-day route that would cross five continents and scale Mount Everest _ Taiwan rejected its inclusion.

"It is something that the government and people cannot accept," Tsai Chen-wei, the head of Taiwan's Olympic Committee, said in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.

The episode underscores the deep mistrust between Beijing and Taipei, antagonists in an unresolved civil war, and how entwined the Olympics become with politics.

The torch also is supposed to pass through another political hotspot, the Himalayan region of Tibet that China has controlled for 57 years, often with heavy handed rule. Four American activists were detained by Chinese authorities Wednesday on Mount Everest after they unfurled a banner calling for Tibet's independence.

"It is unacceptable that the IOC has allowed China to cynically exploit Olympic imagery of universalism and peace to press its claims over Tibet," said Matt Whitticase of Free Tibet Campaign, a member of the International Tibet Support Network.

"This decision is merely the latest example of the IOC's determination to give respectability to China's repression in Tibet."

Although the IOC has regulations on the torch route, it is the local organizers who decide where the flame goes.

The controversies dimmed the gloss on Beijing's long-awaited announcement of the torch route.

At a nationally televised ceremony attended by senior members of China's ruling Communist Party and the International Olympic Committee, organizers unveiled the torch and showed a video of the proposed route.

"It will be a relay that will cover the longest distance and be most inclusive and involve the most people in Olympic history," said Liu Qi, the head of Beijing's Olympic organizing committee.

The relay, which is supposed to embody the Olympic values of friendship through sports, is a popular public relations tool and the only contact most people have with the Olympics.