Two Chinas in Paralympics spat

Taiwan has accused China of pressuring the organisers of the Paralympics Games in Athens to force the president’s wheelchair-bound wife to give up her credentials as the leader of the island’s delegation.

First lady Wu Shu-jen led the Taiwanese team to Athens this week and had planned to attend the games’ opening ceremony on Friday as the group’s leader.

But the event’s organisers have asked her to hand over her credentials because of apparent pressure from China.

Beijing insists that self-ruled Taiwan is part of Chinese territory. The Communist leadership tries to block the island’s leaders and other high-profile figures from participating in events that help Taiwan appear like an independent nation.

But Taiwan has insisted that Wu’s trip to the Paralympics was purely about sports, not politics.

“We would like to express the most severe condemnation of the way China openly and rudely used a political issue to interfere with Taiwan’s athletic participation,” said Cabinet spokesman Chen Chi-mai.

The first lady has been paralysed from the waist down since she was hit by a truck in 1985.

Her husband, President Chen Shui-bian, is unable to make many foreign trips because of China’s pressure, so she often represents him on visits to America and Europe.