A year ago on October 27, Vietnam’s Under 23 national football team faced off against their Taiwanese counterpart in Kyrgyzstan in the Asian Cup qualifiers, the second oldest continental football championship in the world. Vietnam's state TV network was on hand to relay this first-round Asian U-23 contest to fans back home. It was a welcome respite from the country's bout with Covid-19.
Although the Taiwanese squad – nominally "Chinese Taipei" in deference to Beijing's sensitivities – put up a good fight, Vietnam won as expected, taking its first step toward qualifying for the next tournament in Tashkent. However, it wasn’t Lê Văn Xuân’s winning goal in the 82nd minute that fans were talking about the next morning; it was the eerie sight of the Taiwanese team standing to attention on Vietnam’s state-owned television during several minutes of silence. The Taiwanese anthem, Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guóqígē (中華民國國旗歌), was completely muted, although no technical error was announced.
The “glitch" wasn’t covered in the domestic news outlets, yet it triggered heated discussion on social media. The flag salute ceremony at the beginning of the match was removed from the screen as well.
Politically savvy netizens were quick to explain why: the Vietnamese government had once again dodged a situation that might offend China. The word anthem or Guóqígē in Mandarin is often translated into Vietnamese language as “quốc ca”, or the national song. Playing the Taiwanese national song would imply recognition of Taiwan, Vietnam's 6th largest trading partner, as a nation…
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