To be honest, the Chinese “one country, two systems” policy has never gained much support in Taiwan, where it is not backed either by experts or the general public. This is a basic understanding of the current situation based on facts.
In one of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) classic remarks: “Is it really that serious?”
Is it really necessary for Beijing to take politics to the extreme by technically blurring or even canceling livestreams of sports? For China — a country that claims to be a rising economic and global power — the right thing to do now would be to display greater self-confidence and tolerance.
According to media reports, during a National Basketball Association (NBA) game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat on Saturday last week, China’s Tencent Sports abruptly cut the livestream of the game, because one of the fans seated in the front row was wearing a sweatshirt with a Republic of China (ROC) flag on it.
The cancelation of the broadcast stunned an estimated 25 million people watching the game in China.
As the cameras were under the control of the NBA, Tencent was unable to avoid showing the man wearing the unacceptable sweatshirt, so instead it decided to cancel the broadcast for the sake of “political correctness.”
After the game, Tencent replayed highlights instead of uploading the whole game as it normally does.
Tencent officials said the livestream was cut because “transmission elements from the scene of the game did not correspond to broadcasting standards.”
The company instead replaced the game with a match between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Brooklyn Nets.
It might have been unprofessional for Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey to tweet his support for freedom and the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong several weeks ago, and he may very well have crossed Beijing’s red line.
However, Morey deleted the tweet and even apologized, writing: “I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rocket fans and friends of mine in China.”
However, based on the same criteria, Tencent should respect people’s freedom to express a dissenting opinion.
Some of the online comments from Chinese included: “This is no big deal, there is no need to be so sensitive”; “There was no need for this”; “Wearing a Taiwanese flag sweatshirt does not necessarily have to mean that you support Taiwanese independence.”
Of course, other commenters said that it is a matter of principle, asking what else the country has going for it if even its principles are negotiable.
Even online commenters in China understand that people wearing an ROC flag sweatshirt do not necessarily have to be supporters of Taiwanese independence, and that it is about the choice of universal democratic values and the expression of free will.
Why, then, did Tencent have to make such an unnecessary move, which was more or less the same as “taking off one’s pants just to fart,” as an old Chinese saying would have it.
Looking at things from this perspective, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party should try to understand and accept the fact that the ROC is the greatest common denominator in Taiwan, and that it should treat it with dignity, as an equal.
Hu Wen-chi is a former vice chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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