On Tuesday, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) issued a statement criticizing Song Siyao (宋思瑤), a student from Shanghai’s Fudan University, saying she had offended the sensibilities of Taiwanese. It also called for the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation — established by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — which had organized the tour group, to remind group members to be careful with their statements.
Song, during a visit to a baseball stadium in Taichung, said that the tour group “would like to congratulate China, Taipei team (中國台北隊) ... we wish mainland China and Taiwan compatriots can be like the team Chinatrust Brothers and work together for the motherland to take baseball to a higher level.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) accused the foundation of deliberately spreading pro-unification “united front” propaganda on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) accused Song of belittling the nation, denying Taiwan’s status and disparaging Taiwanese baseball.
Were the MAC, Wu and Huang being oversensitive to what appears on the surface to be a well-meaning comment?
Even before the group arrived in Taiwan, it was shrouded in a cloud of suspicion. It was reported on Monday last week that a government official had revealed that all participating students are members of China’s Communist Youth League (CYL) or affiliated with the CCP, leading National Taiwan University political science professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民) to say that this is not a normal exchange, but part of Beijing’s “united front” tactics.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has said that on the path to realizing the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” the CCP leads the way and the CYL are the foot soldiers.
Moreover, nothing about Ma’s words and actions over the past few years would suggest that Chen’s assessment was overblown.
Look at the wording Song used in her response.
Taiwan is forced to compete in international sports events under the name “Chinese Taipei” (中華台北). Much has been written about the absurdity of this requirement and how offensive it is. Some say that it is a necessary compromise if Taiwanese athletes are to compete internationally, while others strongly advocate for Taiwan to boycott international competitions until the stipulation is removed. Absurd and unpopular as this name is, Song’s use of the name “China, Taipei” takes the insult one step further.
Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said that Song was just using terminology that she was conditioned to use in China and that “you could also say ‘China, Taiwan,’ as we all belong to ‘one China.’”
The truth is more pernicious than that. Replacing “Chinese Taipei” with “China, Taipei” is a subtle difference of one syllable in English and one character in Chinese. It is classic CCP salami-slicing to introduce a new and preferred normal. It is the pro-unification propaganda version of military “gray zone” tactics.
Expand the focus from the specific term to the sentence, including the words “Taiwan compatriots” and “working together for the motherland.” There was nothing about her wording that sounded spontaneous. It sounds suspiciously like the committee-formulated, target market-tested formulation of a propaganda team deep in the bowels of China’s “united front” operations, as if it had been drilled into her memory before she arrived in Taiwan.
There are calls to discipline Song for offending Taiwan and spreading “reunification” rhetoric. Those calls stem from understandable frustration and anger. However, the ire would better be directed elsewhere.
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