Two weeks ago, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) raised hackles in Taiwan by posting to her 2.6 million Instagram followers that she was visiting “Taipei, China.” Yeoh’s post continues a long-standing trend of Chinese propaganda that spreads disinformation about Taiwan’s political status and geography, aimed at deceiving the world into supporting its illegitimate claims to Taiwan, which is not and has never been part of China.
Taiwan must respond to this blatant act of cognitive warfare. Failure to respond merely cedes ground to China to continue its efforts to conquer Taiwan in the global consciousness to justify an invasion. Taiwan’s government should announce a lifetime ban on entry into the country for Yeoh and there should be a prohibition on government-backed agencies funding films or productions involving Yeoh. The Motion Picture Development Foundation should seriously consider disqualifying any films starring Yeoh from eligibility for the Golden Horse Awards.
These consequences might seem severe, but they are entirely necessary if Taiwan is serious about defending its national sovereignty.
This month, President William Lai (賴清德) delivered a major address on defending national security and countering China’s “united front” efforts at eroding Taiwan’s sovereignty. Lai laid out 17 major strategies, including countering China’s efforts to erase Taiwan from the international community, and responding to China’s pressuring of Taiwanese entertainers to post statements supporting a Chinese takeover of Taiwan.
When several Taiwanese entertainers posted on Chinese social media platforms their endorsements of China’s illegal claims to Taiwan, the Mainland Affairs Council announced investigations into their conduct, raising the prospect of serious penalties for conspiring with Beijing to undermine Taiwan’s national sovereignty.
Yet while the issue of Taiwanese entertainers betraying their country is serious within Taiwan, it is of relatively low importance to the global contest of narratives over Taiwanese sovereignty. These entertainers, most of whom live and make their money in China, posted in Chinese on a Web site only used in China — the impact of the posts changed no minds over Taiwan’s sovereignty dispute. Absolutely no content is allowed anywhere on the Chinese Internet suggesting that Taiwan is anything but a Chinese province, and almost no one in China doubts that Taiwan belongs to China, a result of generations of brainwashing propaganda and falsified history.
Meanwhile, the global English-language Internet and media remain major sites of contest of narratives over Taiwan’s status.
If Lai is serious about combating China’s political warfare, then Taipei must not fail to confront Beijing’s attacks on the world stage. Taiwan’s banning of a major movie star would certainly make international headlines and convey to the world that Taiwan is a sovereign state whose people oppose annexation by China. An entry ban would confirm that Taiwan has control of its own borders, a fact China works hard to obscure and obfuscate through its disinformation campaigns.
Actors and celebrities would learn that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of China. These celebrities visit this beautiful country and profit off business opportunities here, but these privileges must be denied to those who seek to undermine the country’s very existence.
Fighting back against China’s use of its economic might to marginalize Taiwan is no easy feat, but it must be done on all fronts. The Lai administration must start by taking immediate action to ban Yeoh from the country.
Sasha B. Chhabra is a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei.
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would