The IOC's Nagoya Resolution formally admitted the People's Republic of China to full Olympic membership while requiring the Republic of China (Taiwan) to compete under the name Chinese Taipei, with a different flag and anthem. The decision reflected the broader diplomatic realignment following the UN's 1971 seating of Beijing over Taipei and the US normalization of relations with China in 1979.
For nearly two decades, both the Communist government in Beijing and the Nationalist government in Taipei had claimed to be the sole legitimate government of China, and the IOC had wrestled with letting only one 'China' compete. Taiwan had competed as the Republic of China since 1932, but as more nations recognized Beijing through the 1970s, its position became untenable.
The compromise brokered in Nagoya, Japan, satisfied neither side entirely but allowed Olympic competition to continue. Taiwan protested bitterly, boycotting the 1980 Moscow Games in response, but the arrangement has persisted, with Chinese Taipei's athletes marching under a special flag at every Olympics since 1984.
The episode captured how sport became an arena for the messy diplomacy of Cold War recognition politics, where a flag and a name carried the weight of national legitimacy.