On September 26, General Secretary of the Vietnam Billiards & Snooker Federation Doan Tuan Anh said that the fact that player Tran Quyet Chien left the exchange event held in Shanghai, China on September 23 because of the images containing a map of China including the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos under Vietnam's sovereignty had been fully reported to the Department of Sports and Physical Training, the Vietnam Billiards & Snooker Federation and competent authorities.
Live footage from the Decisive Battle - Dick Jaspers
Mr. Doan Tuan Anh informed: "This is not an official tournament, but just an exchange event organized by the China Billiards & Snooker Association (CBSA) in collaboration with UMB to celebrate the founding anniversary of CBSA and to welcome the event of CBSA joining UMB. Four 3-cushion carom billiards players in the world's Top 10, including No. 2 Cho Myung-woo, No. 4 Dick Jaspers, No. 5 Tran Quyet Chien and No. 10 Tayfun Tasdemir, were invited to attend."
Billiards player Tran Quyet Chien
The first match between Tran Quyet Chien and Dick Jaspers was going on quite normally, but when it was broadcast live on television as well as livestreamed on billiards forums, slow-motion scenes appeared with the CBSA logo emblazoned with the image of a map of China including the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa under Vietnam's sovereignty. When informed of the incident, Tran Quyet Chien discussed with coach Nguyen Viet Hoa as well as the manager of the billiards department in Ho Chi Minh City and decided to leave the tournament midway and return home on September 23.
Coach Nguyen Viet Hoa and Tran Quyet Chien (first, second from right) before a tour
Secretary General Doan Tuan Anh said that on the morning of September 26, as directed, VBSF sent an official response to the incident to UMB, which also invited the four players to participate in the event. "UMB hopes that the Vietnamese side will give a "gentle" reason to explain to the organizers as well as the fans. We do not avoid the reason why Tran Quyet Chien left the tournament because the map image violated Vietnam's sovereignty. Chien has left the tournament, but VBSF still asked UMB to work with the event organizers to remove the above images. UMB's response, if any, will be posted by VBSF on the federation's fanpage in the near future to broaden public opinion," said Mr. Tuan Anh.
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