SAM YEH / AFP/Getty Images

Taiwanese aborigines perform at the main stadium during the World Games opening ceremony in Zouying, Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan on Thursday.

updated 8:25 p.m. ET July 16, 2009

TAIPEI, Taiwan - The 100-strong Chinese delegation boycotted the opening ceremony of the World Games in Taiwan, underscoring the limits of the historic breakthrough in relations between Taipei and Beijing.

The Chinese move Thursday is likely to ruffle feathers on this democratic island of 23 million people, which under President Ma Ying-jeou has moved aggressively to improve ties with the mainland, its once-bitter enemy.

While the Chinese delegation did not say immediately why it boycotted the ceremony — a comment on state-run China News Service acknowledged the presence of Chinese athletes in Taiwan, without mentioning the opening ceremony — the act is almost certainly related to Ma's role in declaring the games open.

Ma did not mention the boycott in his opening remarks.

Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949 and the communist mainland still views the island as part of its territory. Because of this claim, Chinese attendance at the ceremony could have been seen as lending legitimacy to Ma's presidential role. That would contradict Beijing's long-standing position that Taiwan lacks state sovereignty.

Under a hazy summer sky in the southern city of Kaohsiung, more than 3,000 athletes and staff from 105 countries and territories marched into the World Games Stadium, a new, eye-catching structure designed by renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito. The event features 21 non-Olympic sports, like sumo and rugby.

But under the gaze of the capacity crowd of 40,000, the Chinese team was absent from the ceremony, with a single Taiwanese staff member carrying a sign marked "China," and another carrying a Chinese flag.

Some in the crowd applauded this representation of the communist colossus to the west, but many booed, in a clear sign of displeasure with the Chinese action.

The mainland's boycott stands in contradiction to the rapidly improving relations between the sides.

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Since taking power 14 months ago, Ma has jettisoned his predecessor's pro-independence policies, tightening economic links with the mainland, and lowering tensions across the 100-mile-(160-kilometer-) wide Taiwan Strait to their lowest level in 60 years.

Most Taiwanese support his policies, though events like the World Games boycott do not help the mainland's image on the island.

Political scientist Lo Chih-cheng of Soochow University said that after the Chinese delegation's snub many Taiwanese will raise tough questions about Ma's cross-strait policy.

"Ma has been telling Taiwanese that Beijing accepts his claim that Taiwan and China can agree to differ on whether the two sides belong to the same country, but the Chinese delegation's no-show has contradicted that," said Lo, who generally supports the pro-independence opposition. "This will lead people to question the legitimacy of Ma's statements."

But fellow political scientist George Tsai of Taipei's Chinese Culture University — usually a supporter of the government — said that China had shown goodwill by allowing Ma to preside over the opening ceremony.

"Beijing could demand the World Games follow Olympic rules and forbid Ma to attend, but it didn't," Tsai said. "This shows Beijing has made concessions."