TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese legislator who described Taiwan’s Olympic gold winning badminton team as the “pride of the Chinese people” defended her comment on Tuesday (Aug. 6), saying that those who criticized her missed the point.

Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Weng Hsiao-Ling (翁曉玲) made the comment after Taiwan’s Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) won gold in the men's badminton doubles in Paris on Sunday night. She also described the pair as “the light of Taiwan” in a separate post.

When asked about the comments on Tuesday, Weng defended her use of the term “Chinese.” 

“From many perspectives, such as history, culture, blood, and others, we are Chinese. I don't understand what is wrong with this,” she told reporters in Taipei, per CNA.

Weng said she intended to congratulate Lee and Wang on their win with the comment. She added that she believes “Chinese” is not only a term to describe people on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.

She said that as a citizen of the Republic of China (Taiwan) living in Taiwan, she is also Chinese (中國人) and ethnically Chinese (華人). She asked if it would be better to use the terms “the light of Taiwan and the pride of the Chinese people” together going forward.

The results of an annual study released by National Chengchi University in February showed the percentage of people in Taiwan who identified as “Taiwanese” was 61.7%. The number of people who identified as “both Taiwanese and Chinese” was 32%, and "Chinese" was 2.4%.