On November 17, 2010, Taiwanese taekwondo fighter Yang Shu-chun was leading Vietnam's Vu Thi Hau 9–0 in the opening round of the under-49-kilogram flyweight tournament at the Asian Games in Guangzhou when the bout suddenly collapsed into controversy. With only twelve seconds left in the first round, Asian Taekwondo Union vice-president Zhao Lei of China instructed Filipino referee Fernandez S. Estanislaoto to inspect Yang's heels. Officials produced two sensors that had been removed before the fight and were being kept beneath the chair of Yang's coach, Liu Tsung-da. After a brief discussion, Yang was disqualified and Vu was awarded a 12–0 victory, despite Yang's overwhelming lead and the fact that she had already passed a pre-match equipment inspection. Yang and Liu protested on the mat for roughly an hour before World Taekwondo Federation officials ordered them to leave or face wider sanctions against the Chinese Taipei team.
The technical dispute centered on two types of electronic scoring socks. Officials claimed Yang had used an older Velcro-attached design that could supposedly be modified by adding unauthorized heel sensors, while her coach said an equipment inspector had told her to change socks because of a weak signal and that the heel sensors had been removed before competition. Chinese Taipei officials and the equipment supplier argued that no clear ban on the older socks had been issued, that the same design had appeared in other matches without punishment, and that the sensors were part of the manufacturer's original design. Requests for the inspector's testimony and surveillance footage were rejected. The episode quickly became a political and nationalist flashpoint: Taiwanese politicians across party lines accused the officials of wronging Yang, while online conspiracy theories alleged that Zhao Lei, a mentor of China's eventual champion Wu Jingyu, had engineered the disqualification to remove a major rival. That allegation was never established, but the controversy triggered anti-Korean protests in Taiwan, boycotts, a flag-burning demonstration, eggs thrown at a Korean immigration school, hostile hacking of the Asian Taekwondo Union website, and accusations that the federation had published a misleading attack on Chinese Taipei. The fallout continued on December 21, when Yang received a three-month suspension for protesting, Liu was suspended for twenty months, and the Chinese Taipei Taekwondo Association was fined US$50,000 for alleged negligence and wrongdoing.
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