Taiwanese actress Vivian Sung (宋芸樺) on Thursday wrote on Sina Weibo that she is “a Chinese girl born in the 1990s. Taiwan is my hometown, China is my home country,” after Chinese netizens dug out a video of her from 2015 in which she said that her favorite nation was Taiwan.
Sung is not the first Taiwanese artist to be forced to make a political statement due to Chinese bullying.
Taiwanese still remember Beijing’s political witch hunt against other Taiwanese artists: K-pop star Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) was in January 2016 forced to apologize in public for waving a Republic of China (ROC) flag on a South Korean television show, actor Leon Dai (戴立忍) was in July 2016 dropped from Chinese film No Other Love (沒有別的愛) after failing to clarify his political stance and the Chinese distributor of the Taiwanese film Missing Johnny (強尼‧凱克) in March indefinitely suspended the film’s release following claims on Chinese social media that its male lead, actor Lawrence Ko (柯宇綸), supported Taiwanese independence.
A couple of days after Sung’s apology, Taiwanese-Australian model and actress Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌) was targeted by a China Unification Promotion Party member for saying in a 2013 interview that she had two nationalities — Taiwanese and Australian.
Quinlivan’s husband, Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫), is highly popular in China, but that did not stop unification supporters from attacking her, proving that they only care about political ideology.
The Chinese Communist Party and its Taiwanese lackeys might be crowing in delight that they supposedly dampened the morale of Taiwanese independence advocates through such actions, but they only reinforce Taiwanese’s belief that democratic Taiwan and communist China are worlds apart.
China in 1998 signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in 2001 ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
However, forcing Taiwanese artists to make public political statements constitute a clear violation of the agreements.
For example, Article 1 of the cultural rights covenant states: “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
“Nothing in the present Covenant may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights or freedoms recognized herein, or at their limitation to a greater extent than is provided for in the present Covenant,” Article 5 says.
A survey by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in April found that 94 percent of Taiwanese believe that living in a democratic society is “important.”
As freedom of expression is one of the fundamental values of democracy — encompassing freedom of thought and cultural expression, as well as the right to express oneself openly without state interference or the fear of state reprisal — the survey shows how important the freedom of expression is to Taiwanese.
Beijing and its supporters at home will only end up raising awareness of how different Taiwan and China are if they keep up their senseless bullying of Taiwanese artists for political reasons.
It would encourage more Taiwanese to speak up in defense of the nation’s democracy and to resist arrogant, impetuous and autocratic China.
Congratulations to China’s working class — they have officially entered the “Livestock Feed 2.0” era. While others are still researching how to achieve healthy and balanced diets, China has already evolved to the point where it does not matter whether you are actually eating food, as long as you can swallow it. There is no need for cooking, chewing or making decisions — just tear open a package, add some hot water and in a short three minutes you have something that can keep you alive for at least another six hours. This is not science fiction — it is reality.
In a world increasingly defined by unpredictability, two actors stand out as islands of stability: Europe and Taiwan. One, a sprawling union of democracies, but under immense pressure, grappling with a geopolitical reality it was not originally designed for. The other, a vibrant, resilient democracy thriving as a technological global leader, but living under a growing existential threat. In response to rising uncertainties, they are both seeking resilience and learning to better position themselves. It is now time they recognize each other not just as partners of convenience, but as strategic and indispensable lifelines. The US, long seen as the anchor
Kinmen County’s political geography is provocative in and of itself. A pair of islets running up abreast the Chinese mainland, just 20 minutes by ferry from the Chinese city of Xiamen, Kinmen remains under the Taiwanese government’s control, after China’s failed invasion attempt in 1949. The provocative nature of Kinmen’s existence, along with the Matsu Islands off the coast of China’s Fuzhou City, has led to no shortage of outrageous takes and analyses in foreign media either fearmongering of a Chinese invasion or using these accidents of history to somehow understand Taiwan. Every few months a foreign reporter goes to
The war between Israel and Iran offers far-reaching strategic lessons, not only for the Middle East, but also for East Asia, particularly Taiwan. As tensions rise across both regions, the behavior of global powers, especially the US under the US President Donald Trump, signals how alliances, deterrence and rapid military mobilization could shape the outcomes of future conflicts. For Taiwan, facing increasing pressure and aggression from China, these lessons are both urgent and actionable. One of the most notable features of the Israel-Iran war was the prompt and decisive intervention of the US. Although the Trump administration is often portrayed as