The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Monday altered its Web site following controversy over its English-language slogan “Vote White, Vote Right.”
The podcast Bailingguo News (百靈果News) on Sunday shared a screenshot on Facebook of the TPP site’s English-language homepage featuring a banner with the slogan.
Although the color was intended to refer to the party, commenters were quick to point out that the phrase could easily be misunderstood by English speakers as advocating white nationalism and far right-wing politics.
Screengrab from the TPP Web site
“Are you sure you want to write that on the TPP’s official English site?” the podcasters wrote in the post, as some commenters said that “not even [former US president Donald] Trump would have the guts” to use such a slogan.
TPP Legislator Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) commented on the post in English, tagging Trump to ask if he would “dare” to say it.
Democratic Progressive Party director of international affairs Hsieh Pei-fen (謝佩芬) in another Facebook post asked TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) how he could still be planning another visit to the US.
“It’s OK if the TPP’s English isn’t very good, and it’s their business if they want to make jokes, but to so perfectly imply and endorse white supremacy in just two phrases is to bury Taiwan’s international image along with it,” she wrote.
As of Monday morning, the banner image with the slogan had been taken down from the TPP site.
TPP spokesperson Lin Tzu-yu (林子宇) on Monday told reporters that Taiwan does not have the concept of white supremacy, but after receiving feedback from the public, it decided to take the banner down.
The party would also assign TPP Secretary-General Tom Chou (周台竹), who has a background in diplomacy, and a team that specializes in international affairs to strictly review future English content, Lin added.
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