Taiwanese Baseball Players Commit to New Chinese League

TaiwanPlus News

A number of Taiwanese professional baseball players have committed to playing in a new Chinese league. The move makes some Taiwanese baseball fans a little nervous for political considerations.

Transcript

00:00China's new baseball league, Chinese Professional Baseball, not to be confused with Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League,

00:07is set to start next year, and the league is making Taiwanese baseball fans here a little nervous.

00:14There's been speculation over the past few weeks over whether Taiwanese players will go play in the new Chinese league,

00:20and earlier this week we got confirmation that multiple Taiwanese players will actually be participating in the CPB.

00:27Most notably is 40-year-old veteran Ling Yichuan, who's played in Taiwan for close to 20 years at this point.

00:35He was Taiwan's first ever position player to be named MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same year in the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

00:43Then there's Huang Yongchuan, who was a former first-round draft pick.

00:48The acquisition of Taiwanese players is seen as a political play by some,

00:52because it looks like China is asserting its claim over Taiwan by saying get Taiwanese players on these Chinese teams.

00:59One analyst I spoke to earlier says that this new Chinese baseball league is concerning,

01:04but it's nothing to worry about just yet.

01:07The political aspect of this league is that, you know, from the sort of promotional materials that we've seen so far,

01:16we have some narratives like baseball is a sport of coming home.

01:20I don't think we need to worry about our CPBL stars being recruited to play in China.

01:28I think we do need to be cautious about, you know, because this is the very obvious deliberate political message,

01:40you know, coming from the league's materials.

01:43Baseball is Taiwan's national sport.

01:45It's a source of pride for the country.

01:47So having these Taiwanese players go play in China,

01:51a country that is threatening Taiwan with a military takeover,

01:54is a particularly sore spot for fans.

01:57Justin Wu and Leslie Liao for Taiwan Plus.

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