Description
In November 2015, a Taiwanese singer named Chou Tzuyu appeared on a Korean TV show as a member of the pop group ‘Twice’. During the show, she claimed that she was from Taiwan (without mentioning China), and waved the Republic of China flag. Chou was subsequently the recipient of vociferous condemnation from Chinese ‘netizens’, and eventually was compelled to make a public apology for her actions. This apology became the center of an Internet-based dispute between the netizens of mainland China and Taiwan, conducted mainly on the Facebook page of then Taiwanese Presidential candidate, Tsai Yingwen. Subsequently, the tone of this dispute had significant effects on the 2016 Taiwanese general election, with a decisive number of Taiwanese voters switching their support to Tsai. “Cyber-populism”, and the online activities of nationalistic Chinese netizens, are not just limited to the Chou Tzuyu incident. Indeed, Chinese netizens have been vocal in the wake of other international incidents, such as the United Nations Convention ruling on the so-called “Nine-Dash Line” dispute. However, the Chou Tzuyu case was particularly notable for its clearly counterproductive outcome: an argument over the use of Taiwanese symbols of nationalist identity, driven by the identities and objectives of Chinese nationalists, contributed to the electoral success of a pro-Taiwanese independence political party. With this in mind, this paper examines the relationship between Chinese nationalism and cyber-populism, and discusses the effects of this phenomenon on the achievement of China’s stated foreign policy goals. In addition, this paper proposes to examine the significance of symbols of Taiwanese and Chinese independence, and to examine what, if any, relationship exists between the interpretation of these symbols and events and the domestic and foreign approaches of the Chinese government.
