Shenzhen's bid for the 2011 Summer Universiade and its implications for Taiwan in the international sports community

Holding international multi-sport events has been a means for Taiwan to tackle marginalization in the international sports community. Its cities usually obtained the hosting rights through international bids. The Chinese authorities, however, deemed that Taiwan was very likely to promote ‘Two Chinas’ and/or ‘One China One Taiwan’ policies in staging the events during the Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian eras; any Chinese bidder therefore was required to foil its Taiwanese competitor. To achieve the objective of eliminating Kaohsiung of Taiwan in the 2011 World Universiade bid, Shenzhen of China not only played the financial card to demonstrate its ambition to become the host city, but also adopted a number of strategies that rarely used in China's other bids to lobby the voters. Its success resulted in Taiwan losing an opportunity to strengthen its connection with, and escalate its status in, the international sports community and eventually hampered Taiwan's progress in tackling marginalization.