.On July 18th, Financial Times published a scoop: Nancy Pelosi’s plan to visit Taiwan prompts outrage from China. Anyone paying attention to China was immediately alarmed by the news: because this was the highest US government official visiting the island in the last 25 years, after the visit of Newt Gingrich in 1997.
Perhaps what is more shocking is the reaction from our old friend Mr. Hu Xijin on Twitter. He reacted with the following on the 19th,:
If she really dares to visit Taiwan, it will be a major serious incident. She will be the enemy that divides China. She will experience a risky visit. She will also bear historical responsibility for possibly triggering a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
And then on July 20th:
My suggestion to Chinese govt and military: if Pelosi visits Taiwan, PLA military aircraft will accompany Pelosi’s plane to enter the island, making a historic crossing of the island by military aircraft from mainland for the first ime. Its significance would overwhelm Pelosi’s visit.
Most people don’t think Mr. Hu was expressing his private opinion. The menacing threat seems to be from higher up in the government. The wolf warrior spokeperson for Chinese foreign ministry is vague and meek in comparison. Nonetheless, officially China warned of “resolute and forceful measures “.
Even US Pentagon got alarmed and expressed concerns over escalating tension that could spark WWIII. White House was worried. For a while, it appeared that Pelosi might give up her trip. But then many American pundits expressed opinion that giving up is a very bad idea. The suspense was building up. Until Pelosi left the USA for her Asian trip.
On August 2nd, when Pelosi was scheduled to land in Taiwan, so many Chinese were watching the website Flightradar24 to see in real time the flight of Pelosi landing in Taiwan, that the website has to create a waiting room to prevent the website to crash. On Chinese social media, that night, the visit was the trending topic.
The first casualty on Chinese social media was a pop song, “Will You Be Coming Tonight”, because:
“Will You Be Coming Tonight” by Leon Lai banned by Chinese music streaming services tonight as netizens are using it to jest about Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan amidst rising tensions.
It was the top song for the night, of course, until it was no longer available.
According to journalists who monitor Chinese social media, anti-war speech on Weibo was also very quick to be deleted:
So Pelosi crashed Weibo. Some pages are slow to load. Some failed to load. Really interesting to read many anti-war comments. Many Chinese don’t want war. War won’t be popular.
I read them like 20 minutes ago. Now Weibo has started deleting comments.
Many Chinese people who were hyped by Mr. Hu and the social media thought a WWIII was starting that night, some even thought this bloodshed could open the door for democracy in China (go figure). They were very bitter when August 3rd passed and nothing happened. So the internet turned, to mock their government for having no guts.
The public sentiment seemed to be against the government for a while. And a famous Weibo big V “Chairman Rabbit” squarely blamed it on Mr. Hu for his big mouth that aroused public expectations. Chairman Rabbit has a grandfather who was a early member of CCP. In China he is the third generation Red, just like our Dear Supreme Leader (aka Winnie the Pooh) is a second generation Red. They are the core of the power structure in CCP. Chairman Rabbit claimed that Mr. Hu has no real connection with the power in CCP and was boasting irresponsibly.
Mr. Hu hit back, arguing that he was using his own influence on social media to defend the country. Meanwhile, Mr. Hu disclosed that his “enemy” was Harvard educated and has worked in a think tank of the USA: Hu implied that Chairman Rabbit is not as pure Chinese as he is.
The apparent fight on social media between the two might have been a show directed by the propaganda department. They are more likely performing a traditional Chinese comedy show of two men talk to each other. They always seemed to be belittling each other, while providing laughs to the audience.
Exactly what the government did in response to the “US provocation”?
Well, first came the strong verbal condemnation from the Foreign ministry, which is dramatically different from their reaction in 1997 when Newt Gingrich visited Taiwan as House Speaker. Of course before Gingrich arrived in Taiwan, there was also lots of intimidations. The difference is that then the US did not care at all.
After Gingrich left, China had the usual complaints, no military drills. This time, there has been military drills all the way from August 5th to 7th and the drills were extended to the 9th.
The Foreign Minister of Taiwan, Joseph Wu warned the world about the extended military drills:
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu strongly condemned China’s “irresponsible behavior” and described the large-scale military exercises as “a serious provocation.”
He said China used Nancy Pelosi’s visit “as a pretext to pursue its true intention.”
“China’s real intention behind these military exercises is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the entire region […] The support of so many nations let Taiwan people know that we are not alone. It also sends a message to the world that democracy will not bow to the intimidation of authoritarianism.”, he added.
What puzzled people is just exactly how many missiles have been fired.
No one knows.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Defence, it was 16 missiles.
According the to Japanese MOD, it was 9 missiles.
According to the Taiwanese MOD, it was 11!
Go figure.
Many observers noticed that China’s power, both economically and militarily, grew bigly in the last 25 years, while the power of the USA grew much less. In recent years, there have been speculations that China will invade Taiwan as soon as it feels ready, which can be just 4 or 5 years from now.
China and US also had a lot more areas of cooperations than 25 years ago. Hence, now China can punish the US by cancelling them:
.
There are a few comments from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affair that are also worth noting.
First, the Minister, a gentleman named Wang Yi,
source.
One oversea female Chinese scholar immediately pointed out on Twitter:
Wang Yi saying Sun Yat-sen would call President Tsai Ing-wen “unworthy descendant” 不肖子孙 is peak patriarchal familial nationalism that makes one cringe
(Wang Yi is not alone in his “patriarchal familial nationalism”. Chinese State TV called Pelosi “scandal-ridden old witch”.)
Then, Chinese Ambassador to France went on France TV BFM TV to announce the following (0:34):
“After reunification, we will do re-education” (you can practice your French)
Re-education is Beijing’s framing of genocide in Xinjiang.
Perhaps these are not enough, the spokeperson for the MOFA tweeted the following:
Baidu Maps shows that there are 38 Shandong dumpling restaurants and 67 Shanxi noodle restaurants in Taipei. Palates don’t cheat. #Taiwan has always been a part of China. The long lost child will eventually return home.
Of course many twitter users happily applied this logic to food and geopolitical matters. The best one says:
every country with pizzeria will unite with Italy one day.
Other departments are not idle. Police in China arrested a Taiwanese man “on suspicion of endangering national security”.
In Taiwan, most people reacted to Pelosi’s visit with warmth and calm. They did not talk too much about it before the trip became reality, because they are, like people around the global outside China, busy with their own lives.
When Pelosi arrived, most Taiwanese people appreciated her visit because they view the visit as a show of support to Taiwan. Most of Taiwanese people don’t want to become an independent country. They want the status quo. Because, they are a defacto country, with their own government, military, and ministry of foreign affair. In fact they enjoy freedom of visiting most of the countries on earth without visa requirement, unlike Chinese citizens, who must apply for entry visa to enter, or have a long wait for visa on arrival, for most countries in the world.
Taiwanese don’t want be part of China either, because they can see what China is doing to Xinjiang and Hong Kong. They have a free life and they don’t want to lose it. Recent polls showed that if China invades Taiwan, 60+% youth would take up arms to defend the island.
As for the military drills, they just shrug it off and carry on their daily lives as usual. Because they are used to it. Someone spotted this sign in Taiwan that pretty much summarized the mood:
Buns, folks, is the English name for Baozi, which, if you recall our newsletter 17, the most popular nickname for Dear Supreme Leader (aka Baozi). Right now, on Chinese social media, topics on recipes of baozi are banned. Someone has really really thin skins.
If you want to learn more about Taiwanese reaction to the event, and your Chinese is good, you can listen to this podcast episode.
The two guests recommended some books and films about Taiwan. If you are interested, you can watch the films mentioned:
Or you can read an op-ed article on New York Times, “I’m Taiwanese, and I Want to Thank Nancy Pelosi”.
But among Taiwanese people, there are people who are pro-China. One stands out with his post on Weibo that attracted lots of viewership. He is the singer Huang An, who has a few controversial episodes in the past.
On August 5th, he posted a very lewd paragraph on Weibo, imagining himself fucking the president of Taiwan every time she mentioned “Democracy” in her speech. The misogyny in his message is staggering. He is probably trying to outdo the state TV of China.