Since the election of new Taiwanese President Lai Ching Te, political tensions between Taiwan and China have been an all-time high.
China also decried the Lai Ching Te’s inauguration address on Monday (May 20), saying it crossed a red line when he announced that Taiwan and China “are not subordinate to each other”.
In what seems like a bid to counter Taiwan’s message, there is now an arsenal of celebrities from both sides of the Straits reposting the hashtag “China will eventually achieve complete reunification”.
The caption also included a picture with the message that Taiwan’s independence is a “dead end” and that the reunification is unstoppable.
Of course, no one batted an eyelid when Chinese stars including Hu Ge, Huang Xiaoming, Fang Bingbing, Dilireba, and Zhou Xun threw their support behind the slogan.
But what caught our attention were the many Taiwanese celebs who also posted the same ‘One China’ message on the microblogging platform.
Singer Rainie Yang, who is married to Chinese singer Li Ronghao, as well as actress Michelle Chen, whose husband is Chinese actor Chen Xiao, are just two in a long list of Taiwanese stars, including Patty Hou, Ouyang Nana, Joe Chen, who have seemingly thrown their support behind China’s intentions.
The list also includes Taiwanese celebs like Angela Chang and Guan Hong are also known to have projects with Chinese backing, with the former spending most of her time performing in China.
Guan Hong, who first found fame in Hunan TV’s Meteor Garden in 2018, also has a slew of upcoming dramas in China.
Of course, Chinese netizens on Weibo were seen flooding the comments praising the stars who stood by China’s reunification efforts.
However, it was a different scene altogether on Instagram where Taiwanese celebs like Angela saw a tsunami of hateful messages.
“Remember to change your passport to red before coming back to Taiwan, otherwise we can’t tell where you are truly from,” wrote an angry netizen on singer Angela Chang’s Instagram.
In a bid to stem any hateful comments on her Instagram, Rainie has since disabled the comments section.