A 16-year-old Taiwanese singer with a South Korean pop group inadvertently shot to the top of the nation’s election agenda yesterday after she apologized in a YouTube video for holding a Republic of China (ROC) flag on a South Korean TV show, prompting anger in Taiwan as the nation voted for a new president.
The YouTube clip drew an angry response in Taiwan as netizens said Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), also known as Tzuyu, the only Taiwanese member of pop group TWICE, must have been forced to apologize by her South Korean bosses, who caved in under pressure from Chinese fans.
Netizens compared Tzuyu’s video apology to hostage clips posted by the Islamic State group as Chou, wearing a turtleneck sweater and standing against a white tile background, said “there is only one China... I have always felt proud of being Chinese.”
Photo: screen grab from YouTube
The apology came after her South Korean management company, JYP Entertainment Corp, said it was curtailing her commercial activities in China, apparently in response to accusations leveled by China-based Taiwanese singer Huang An (黃安), who claimed that Chou was a supporter of Taiwanese independence because she held a ROC flag on the South Korean variety show My Little Television.
Huang is notorious for tipping off Chinese authorities and netizens about Taiwanese he considers to be supporters of independence.
“JYP Entertainment has forced one of its stars to pander to China simply for profit,” a Taiwanese netizen wrote.
“Huang may have an illness, but JYP Entertainment doesn’t have to dance to his tune,” another netizen wrote.
There was also anger on the streets of Taipei,with 70-year-old Liu Chao-chih saying: “She is just being used. We are proud to be Taiwanese. No one should be forced to say they’re Chinese. We are not.”
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the three presidential candidates yesterday also weighed in on the controversy.
“She does not need to apologize and we support her,” Ma said, adding that any ROC national who identifies with the country and holds its flag should be supported.
Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the incident “profoundly hurt the feelings of Taiwanese,” calling on the nation to “unite in solidarity.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) condemned Huang and JYP for their actions, adding: “Our hearts are united in support of Chou.”
People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) said he was “angered and disgusted that the government lacked the rigor to protect even a teenage child.”
“It is the government’s responsibility to protect the nation’s patriotic citizens,” Soong said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has asked its representative office in South Korea to contact both Chou and JYP Entertainment to see if there are any problems it could help address and to express Taiwan’s support for the singer.
The Mainland Affairs Council asked China to show restraint following the controversy.
“It is absolutely fair and justified for a Taiwanese to hold a national flag to show his or her love for the country, and we support such a patriotic act,” the council said in a statement, adding that cross-strait exchanges should be based on mutual respect.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office responded by saying that the incident was being “used” by certain political forces in Taiwan to “stir up the feelings of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
“Compatriots on both sides should be on high alert over this,” it said in a statement carried by Chinese state media.
JYP Entertainment did not answer telephone calls seeking comment, but in a statement on its Chinese microblog, it said it was sorry for the “harm caused to our Chinese friends” and promised the company would “respect other nations’ sovereignty.”
JUKSY, a Taiwanese online fashion magazine, yesterday offered to buy the right to manage Chou’s career from JYP for a maximum of NT$100 million (US$2.96 million).
The magazine, which says it has a readership of 1.15 million, said in a statement that its board of directors called a meeting to debate what they could do for Chou.
“We decided we would offer her a new possibility and another choice,” the magazine said, adding it was willing to buy out her JYP Entertainment management contract.
“We have started drafting the agreement and have contacted JYP Entertainment about the buyout,” it said, adding that it would do its best to bring Chou back to Taiwan so that she could pursue her career at home.
CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT: A new committee would investigate a backlog of US weapons sales to Taiwan, said its chairman, US Representative Mike Gallagher The US should formally recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, and end its outdated and counterproductive “one China” policy, US Representative Tom Tiffany and 18 other US lawmakers wrote in a petition. “It is time to change the status quo and recognize the reality denied by the US government for decades: Taiwan is an independent nation,” Tiffany told the Epoch Times. “As our long-standing and valued partner, correctly acknowledging their independence from communist China is long overdue.” The resolution also asks the administration of US President Joe Biden to support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations and to negotiate a bilateral free-trade
The Pentagon is preparing for US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Taiwan later this year, Punchbowl News reported on Monday, citing an official directly involved in the talks. US administration officials anticipate McCarthy would visit Taiwan some time in the spring, the report said. McCarthy had previously pledged to visit Taiwan if he became House speaker. He was elected speaker earlier this month. He had also said that he would have liked to join then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s delegation when she visited Taiwan in August last year. Pelosi’s 19-hour visit to Taipei marked the first time in 25 years
GUT FEELING: In the leaked memo, US Air Force General Mike Minihan urged mobile command personnel to go to a firing range, shoot at a target and ‘aim for the head’ A four-star US Air Force general has warned of a conflict with China as early as 2025 — most likely over Taiwan — and urged his commanders to push their units to achieve maximum operational battle readiness this year. In an internal memorandum that first emerged on social media on Friday, and was later confirmed as genuine by the Pentagon, Air Mobility Command Commander General Mike Minihan said that the main goal should be to deter “and, if required, defeat” China. “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025,” Minihan said. Minihan said that Taiwan’s presidential election
Taiwan’s Chou Chieh-yu (周婕妤) was crowned the Kamui WPA Women’s World 9-Ball Champion after shutting out British pool titan Allison Fisher 9-0 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the organizers said on Sunday. Following the championship win at Harrah’s Resort and Casino Atlantic City, Chou pocketed US$30,000 and became the first female competitor to hold both the 9-ball and 10-ball world titles since Briton Kelly Fisher in 2012. Chou, 36, won the Predator World Women’s 10-Ball Championship in Austria in September last year after clinching a silver medal at last year’s World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, in July. “I’m very excited and it’s like
RSS