Troubles for Wu

Sorry for reviving an old thread but having grown up in Taiwan, I probably understand this issue than most people on this forum. You can legally have multiple passports - a lot of my friends are in the same situation. However, you are not allowed to leave the country once you have been sent a letter to be in the ROC army and unless u are handicapped, u can not escape it.

This whole thing really started from Wu Chia Ching moving away to Singapore because Singapore promised to pay him salary to play. This never worked out because most of that salary goes to taxes which is supposedly ridiculous in Singapore. Also, this action pissed off the Taiwanese pool association and Wu was not allowed to play in any WPA sanctioned events (Taiwan has a strong influence in the WPA). He stopped playing for a few years because of this, and going to China was his quickest fix to start competing in tournaments again.

Taiwan (ROC) military is not strenuous at all so I could see little reason he did everything to avoid it.

Anyways, Taiwan gives out "bonuses" to athletes who place in major events - olympics, world games, tennis, etc. So he did win the 75k with 300k on top as bonus and because of this, the Asian games is probably one of the most important events for the Taiwanese players because of the incentive.

My take on his actions is just that he wanted a more promising future so he tried find money, but obviously at the wrong places. It seems like he didn't put much thinking into his choices. Don't see anything wrong with playing for another country as long as complicated politics aren't involved. Lo-Li Wen plays for Japan now and he is still loved in Taiwan.

Yani-Tseng - top female pro golfer who is Taiwanese turned down millions of dollars from China and stayed as a Taiwanese citizen. But money in golf is a lot more promising than pool.. what Wu did isn't completely bad, but the process is what caused him to be in the terrible state he is in now..
 
Another interesting bonus story concerned Naif Al Jalweni who reached the quarter finals of the World 8 Ball Championships a few years ago.
He won $4000 for his efforts but on return to his native Saudi Arabia he was whisked to the palace where a member of the KSA Royal Family presented him with a further $100,000.

I heard that another round would have taken this up to quarter of a million and winning the event would have earned him seven figures.

This probably has a bearing on why the game is so popular in the Middle East
 
vincentwu817 said:
Sorry for reviving an old thread but having grown up in Taiwan, I probably understand this issue than most people on this forum. You can legally have multiple passports - a lot of my friends are in the same situation. However, you are not allowed to leave the country once you have been sent a letter to be in the ROC army and unless u are handicapped, u can not escape it.

This whole thing really started from Wu Chia Ching moving away to Singapore because Singapore promised to pay him salary to play. This never worked out because most of that salary goes to taxes which is supposedly ridiculous in Singapore. Also, this action pissed off the Taiwanese pool association and Wu was not allowed to play in any WPA sanctioned events (Taiwan has a strong influence in the WPA). He stopped playing for a few years because of this, and going to China was his quickest fix to start competing in tournaments again.

Taiwan (ROC) military is not strenuous at all so I could see little reason he did everything to avoid it.

Anyways, Taiwan gives out "bonuses" to athletes who place in major events - olympics, world games, tennis, etc. So he did win the 75k with 300k on top as bonus and because of this, the Asian games is probably one of the most important events for the Taiwanese players because of the incentive.

My take on his actions is just that he wanted a more promising future so he tried find money, but obviously at the wrong places. It seems like he didn't put much thinking into his choices. Don't see anything wrong with playing for another country as long as complicated politics aren't involved. Lo-Li Wen plays for Japan now and he is still loved in Taiwan.

Yani-Tseng - top female pro golfer who is Taiwanese turned down millions of dollars from China and stayed as a Taiwanese citizen. But money in golf is a lot more promising than pool.. what Wu did isn't completely bad, but the process is what caused him to be in the terrible state he is in now..
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Thanks for posting this information. It helps us understand Wu's situation more thoroughly.

For me, I find its amazing how pool as a sport is looked at in countries outside of the United States. If only Americans could embrace pool the way other countries do, it sure would be nice for us American pool enthusiasts.

Thanks again for contributing to this thread! :smile:
 
pro9dg said:
Another interesting bonus story concerned Naif Al Jalweni who reached the quarter finals of the World 8 Ball Championships a few years ago.
He won $4000 for his efforts but on return to his native Saudi Arabia he was whisked to the palace where a member of the KSA Royal Family presented him with a further $100,000.

I heard that another round would have taken this up to quarter of a million and winning the event would have earned him seven figures.

This probably has a bearing on why the game is so popular in the Middle East
Click to expand...

Another amazing pool happening. Wow! :cool:
 
JAM said:
I think you are right, iusedtoberich! The prize fund for first place at the WPC in 2005 was $75,000. The $100,000 figure is the amount that the government gave to Wu for winning his championship as a Taiwanese citizen.

After 2005, the first-place prize was $100,000, but this was after Wu's win.

The military problem comes from the fact that Wu was in college, and the college students do not have to serve in the military if they're in school: Wu, who changed his nationality in April this year to compete for China but did not renounce his Taiwanese citizenship, was a student of Chinese Culture University in Taipei, making him eligible for a military service deferment.

I tried to do some research on the worldpoolchampionship website (a Matchroom Sports-owned website), but the only information I could find was the last tournament produced by Matchroom Sports in 2007, won by Peach. I cannot seem to locate any info on that website about the previous WPCs. Maybe I am not as good at navigating, but I cannot find one mention of the 2005 WPC. Matchroom discontinued a forum they used to have on that website as well.

After this time, I believe -- and this is subject to check -- Matchroom Sports does not promote further WPCs. I can't remember why, though.
Click to expand...
Jen
This link (post 17) may throw some light on your final question

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=248926&page=2
 
Wu is one of my favorite players.
Many thanks for the great read and insights.


AnitoKid
 
When Wu win international competition, the sport department of taiwan would had such amount money for rewarding and this is extra.........

I do not care what he is going to represent, that's his choice but unless he born in Taiwan so at least he finish his duty first......

But now, if he is not finish his duty then he be sitting in jail with no question to ask.....also this is not politics!!!
 
JAM said:
Well, heck, I'd leave, too, then. That doesn't seem fair. It's a mandatory draft system? Wow! Poor Wu! :frown:
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Poor? Mandatory service system is not THAT rare. Some developed countries I can remember from the top of my head are Estonia, Finland, Denmark. All three are EU countries.

I don't know the reasons why Wu decided to represent China, but I don't like it if he did it for selfish reasons.

Also, don't know the situation in the military he is supposed to serve, but having gone through the service myself in Estonia, I don't regret it.
 
Autist said:
Poor? Mandatory service system is not THAT rare. Some developed countries I can remember from the top of my head are Estonia, Finland, Denmark. All three are EU countries.

I don't know the reasons why Wu decided to represent China, but I don't like it if he did it for selfish reasons.

Also, don't know the situation in the military he is supposed to serve, but having gone through the service myself in Estonia, I don't regret it.
Click to expand...

Greece(EU) and Turkey have mandatory service as well. In Greece, up until the late 70s the service time was 2 years. Now it is 9 months.

The funny thing is that you don't do anything really useful in this mandatory service time. You may spend 9 months cleaning toilets, cooking food or moving boxes around. The real military job is actually for the guys who get paid for it. The rest is cannon fodder.

So yeah...poor Wu ;)
 
JimmyWhite said:
Greece(EU) and Turkey have mandatory service as well. In Greece, up until the late 70s the service time was 2 years. Now it is 9 months.

The funny thing is that you don't do anything really useful in this mandatory service time. You may spend 9 months cleaning toilets, cooking food or moving boxes around. The real military job is actually for the guys who get paid for it. The rest is cannon fodder.

So yeah...poor Wu ;)
Click to expand...


While I agree that in some places, or in some countries, the time service may be not so useful, I do feel like in some places it is useful.

Talking about personal experience, I feel it was VERY useful for me. Going into the Estonian Navy for 11 months, beforehand I couldn't even swim and my physical form was below average. After 11 months, I can swim one mile, and the result of my NATO test (pushups, situps, 3.2km run) result was 283/300. It was 172 during my first week of service.

And it wasn't all practice or drills. We did real jobs too. We secured a harbor (our own base horbor wasn't big enough for huge war ships) a couple of times when foreign countries war ships came in from the USA or Germany, which included searching the personel and cars coming on and off the territory. It was pretty cool to swap the small flags with USA soldiers. :p

It depends on what position you get assigned on. I was in the costal defence unit, and there was hardly any real downtime or sitting around.

Some of course, got assigned to the kitchen, which was pretty pointless.

If not anything else, then no matter what you are doing in the service, you will have time to do sports, and that's hardly a bad thing.
 
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