Chinese state media have sought to quiet online speculation that a conflict with Taiwan might be imminent, in a sign of how heated rhetoric between Washington and Beijing was feeding public concern about the risk of war.
Chinese social media networks have seen a flurry of chatter about a possible Taiwan crisis in the past few days, seemingly fueled by Beijing’s call for citizens to stockpile food and an unrelated message claiming to show the nation was preparing to mobilize military reserves.
The surge came after a report by China’s state broadcaster saying that Taiwanese were hoarding their own survival supplies.
Photo: AFP
On Tuesday, the Economic Daily published a commentary urging the public “not to over-read” a Chinese Ministry of Commerce statement encouraging families to stock up on some daily necessities due to supply-chain concerns.
Then, late on Tuesday, a social media account affiliated with the official People’s Liberation Army Daily newspaper denounced the mobilization rumors as a “vile” and “malicious fabrication.”
“It will not only cause negative impact to the state, the military and society, it could also lead to severe consequences,” said the account, Junzhengping.
One screenshot of a text message widely circulated on social media urged reserves to “get ready for being recalled at any time” because “the Taiwan issue was very grim.”
Yesterday morning, the Junzhengping denial was among the top-trending topics on the Weibo social media network.
Still, the war talk continued to simmer, with a 63-year-old video of Chinese People’s Liberation Army generals singing that they “will definitely plant the flag of victory on Taiwan” getting more than 130 million views.
The controversy shows the challenge Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government faces in trying to manage Chinese public sentiment over Taiwan, even with its vast censorship powers. Over months of saber-rattling over Taiwan, authorities have sometimes needed to step in to tone down the rhetoric and at other times faced backlash for perceived weakness.
The official China Daily newspaper warned in an editorial on Sunday that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were “leading Taiwan to an abyss.”
The paper cited a senior Chinese official’s pledge to spend the nation’s “post-unification” revenue on improving the well-being of its citizens as a remark that shows “confidence that the Taiwan question will be settled in the foreseeable future.”
Hu Xijin (胡錫進), the editor-in-chief of the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper, offered a strategic rationale for the government’s rhetoric in a commentary published on Monday.
Hu said that “peaceful reunification” would likely result from applying enough pressure to make the DPP leadership believe it had no choice but to surrender.
“Personally, I believe there is still a chance for peaceful reunification, but it must be based on the condition that the DPP authority feels cornered and will perish if they do not accept reunification,” Hu said.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS