Pawns complicit in China’s global cognitive warfare
Public figures like celebrities and pop artists are often at the forefront of disinformation campaigns, especially when they covet the promise of China’s vast market. Taiwan is subjected to consistent infidelity by many of its homegrown singers, especially since they choose to sign special agreements — like the “One China oath (中國台灣承諾書)” — with state-sanctioned marketing agencies and pledge allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
These chameleon artists have been coerced or coaxed into not only posting social media content designed by Chinese state media on Weibo, a severely censored platform engineered by the CCP, but sharing communist propaganda regarding Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang as well. Collectively, they are known as “communist panderers (舔共).” In the grand theater of the CCP’s domineering ambitions, they are willing pawns in China’s myth-building attempts to sweep aside its socioeconomic weaknesses, distract from its human rights abuses, and rewrite its actual history.
EIGHT TAIWANESE PAWNS
Ariel Lin (林依晨) — Actress who made her name from Taiwanese idol dramas including “It Started with a Kiss (惡作劇之吻)” and self-proclaimed “Chengduese (成都人)” despite being born and raised in Yilan, Taiwan after her grandfather left Sichuan, China two generations ago. She has repeatedly touted the beauty and simplicity of life in Xinjiang, a surveillance state given China’s ongoing genocidal campaign against the local Uyghurs that involves concentration camps and forced sterilization, during a recent magazine photoshoot there.
Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) — Taiwan’s top model and the once-rumored romantic interest of Foxconn tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘). Lin traveled to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where she runs a charity school, to make a video with kids dressed in brightly colored ethnic costumes singing and dancing to the patriotic tune of “My People, My Country (我和我的祖國)” in 2019. She was also the very first Taiwanese celebrity to share China Central Television’s national day post — a mere 19 minutes after the “I love you, China” graphic debuted on Weibo — last October.
Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰) — Singer of Indigenous Amis heritage who was introduced to the public as a successful challenger on the Taiwanese talent show “One Million Star.” He is a frequent performer at Chinese state media’s spring festival galas, although one disastrous performance was attributed to refusing to lip-sync even after falling sick. As a vocal proponent of the “One China” fantasy, Hsiao took part in the recording of “We Sing the Same Song (我們同唱一首歌),” a 2022 propaganda jingle with lyrics such as “both sides of the strait / have always been one family” penned by Vincent Fang (方文山), a fellow Taiwanese artist.
Jay Chou (周杰倫) — Taiwanese singer-songwriter with two decades’ worth of chart-topping hits. Having established a global presence from humble origins in Taipei, Chou has since been focused on growing his career on the opposite side of the strait. “To be a proud Chinese is to speak Chinese, which is why my English sucks,” he once stated, although he shrewdly does not maintain a Weibo account that would require him to re-post propaganda by Chinese state media. Chou, however, has appeared at least six times at the CCP’s spring festival gala, China’s most politically calculated show.
Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) — Taiwanese diva of superstar status renowned for her dance moves and lavish adoration of her Gucci-wearing puppies. As a fashionista, she often shares selfies while wearing an assortment of costumes from China’s minority ethnic groups on social media. This May, at the Jiangxi leg of her “Ugly Beauty” concert tour, Tsai thanked her fans by saying “Our China’s Nanchang is the most passionate of all! (我們中國，南昌最熱情了對吧)” — a deliberate message that was repeated on her Weibo account, proving the statement to be crafted in a show of allegiance instead of an innocent slip of tongue.
Mayday (五月天) — Five-piece boyband that led Taiwan’s Mando-rock movement during the 2000s. Prior to the 2024 presidential elections in Taiwan, Mayday was accused of lip-syncing at a Shanghai concert in a move that was perceived as the CCP’s attempts to discredit the band and divide Taiwanese voters. By May this year, the band’s frontman Ashin cheerfully declared that “Us Chinese will always stop for Peking duck when we’re in Beijing” while performing at the Chinese capital. The statement was delivered when the CCP was carrying out two days of military exercises to intimidate Taiwan.
Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) — Actress whose breakthrough stemmed from Taiwanese idol dramas including “Devil Beside You (惡魔在身邊)” and self-identified “Cantonese (廣東人)” despite being born and raised in Taipei after her father left China for Taiwan. She has made misleading claims that “seafood is a luxury (奢侈的)” in Taiwan, an island nation known for its advanced aquaculture and distant-water fishing fleets. Yet Yang cannot celebrate her birthday on Chinese social media because of the CCP’s censorship pertaining to June 4, the taboo date of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Huang An (黃安) — Hsinchu-born singer of “The New Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies Dream (新鴛鴦蝴蝶夢)” fame and self-appointed “terminator of Taiwanese separatists (台獨剋星)” who takes pride in reporting celebrities from Taiwan or Hong Kong for any perceived slight against China. Victims of his Weibo tirades include Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), a Taiwanese starlet who was only 16 then. Despite moving to Beijing to revive his career, Huang still returns to Taiwan for medical treatment and also to shelter from the Covid-19 virus at the start of the global epidemic radiating from Wuhan, China.
HALL OF FAME
* not a comprehensive list
- Angela Chang (張韶涵) — “I am Chinese, I love my motherland”
- Jeff Chang (張信哲) — “This is the mighty Motherland, this is the place where I grew up”
- Ning Chang (張鈞甯) — “Strongly identifies with being Chinese”
- Darren Chen (官鴻) — “Glory to the motherland”
- Ivy Chen (陳意涵) — “Don’t you dare bully us, the Chinese people”
- Michelle Chen (陳妍希) — “Taiwan must return to the motherland’s embrace”
- Vicky Chen (文淇) — “Taiwan independence is a dead end”
- Ken Chu (朱孝天) — “Hoping for a swift unification”
- Fei Yu-ching (費玉清) — “I sing in praise of our dear Chairman Mao”
- Peter Ho (何潤東) — “Speaking from Taiwan Province”
- Patty Hou (侯佩岑) — “Taiwan independence is a dead end”
- Dylan Kuo (郭品超) — “Long live the motherland”
- Blue Lan (藍正龍) — “I love you, China”
- Show Lo (羅志祥) — “We are all Chinese”
- Nana Ou-Yang (歐陽娜娜) — “Proudly Chinese”
- Eddie Peng (彭于晏) — “Happy birthday [China], prosper on, add oil add oil add oil, so proud!”
- Shu Qi (舒淇) — “Taiwan must return to the motherland’s embrace”
- Richie Ren (任賢齊) — “I am Chinese”
- Shin (蘇見信) — “From the very start, I’ve always been pro-unification”
- Vivian Sung (宋芸樺) — “China is my Motherland”
- David Tao (陶喆) — “Chinese DNA is embedded in my blood”
- Cyndi Wang (王心凌) — “I am part of the greater Chinese family!”
- Darren Wang (王大陸) — “Prosperity to the motherland! Happy birthday, New China”
- Jiro Wang (汪東城) — “I’ve always been Chinese”
- Kenji Wu (吳克群) — “China will fulfill its dream of complete unification”
- Nicky Wu (吳奇隆) — “I love my motherland”
- Aska Yang (楊宗緯) — “China will fulfill its dream of complete unification”
- Zhong Ming-xuan (鍾明軒) — “The Taiwanese are a part of the greater Chinese family”
Remarkably, hall of famers including Cyndi Wang, Jeff Chang, David Tao, Mayday, and Jay Chou have all announced plans to hold comeback concerts in Taiwan later this year.
FEED, TRAP, KILL
In democratic Taiwan, freedom of speech is upheld and no punishment has ever been levied upon the aforementioned public figures. They continue to enjoy universal medical care and performance opportunities here. However, their freedoms will be severely curtailed in China if they ever disobeyed the CCP, whose approach to elite capture has been termed “Feed, Trap, and Kill (養套殺),” meaning to lure with money, imprison through success, and control with the threat of taking it all away.
After performing at Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) inauguration ceremony in 2000, Amis singer A-mei (張惠妹) was blacklisted by the CCP and stripped of endorsement deals while subjected to a complete media blackout in China. Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), a Taiwanese member of the K-pop group Twice, was forced to make a tearful confession video stating “There is only One China” after waving the Taiwanese flag on a Korean variety show in 2015. Twice never performed in Taiwan since, despite enjoying a loyal Taiwanese fan base.
The witch hunt that ended with the 16-year-old’s involuntary apology was largely prompted by Huang An (黃安), one of the eight Taiwanese pawns profiled earlier, who made a series of posts on Weibo accusing Chou of supporting Taiwanese independence and demanding retaliation from her Chinese fans and sponsors like Huawei. Artists represented by Twice’s management company, JYP, were removed from Chinese music streaming sites before the Korean conglomerate caved. The unfairness of it all led many young Taiwanese voters to cast their ballots for Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and she won her first presidency upon a Taiwan-centric platform.
The intensity of CCP pressure exerted upon Taiwanese celebrities is cranked up during political milestones such as Nancy Pelosi’s historic visit to Taipei as US House Speaker in 2022. A truckload of Taiwan-born entertainers all rushed to share a “There is only One China” graphic released by China Central Television on Weibo, with the island shape of Taiwan completing the simplified Mandarin character for “country.” Singer Hebe Tien (田馥甄) was then lambasted by Chinese netizens for posting an innocent selfie with a plate of spaghetti since Madame Pelosi is of Italian heritage.
A compulsory show of allegiance also took place after William Lai Ching-te (賴清德) was inaugurated as Taiwan’s latest head of state this May, involving yet another graphic produced by Chinese state media proclaiming “Taiwan independence is a dead end.” Mayday and Jolin Tsai’s high-profile and passionate comments identifying themselves as Chinese were also delivered the same month in front of tens of thousands of concert-goers in Beijing and Nanchang.
President Lai has expressed his sympathy for such celebrities who have to follow house rules when working under the roof of China, noting that they must be under immense pressure and the people of Taiwan can try to be more “understanding” since this is not the first time that the CCP has forced Taiwanese artists to make political statements, nor will it be the last.
Taiwan’s cross-strait authority, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), stressed “the CCP has long interfered in the arts and in the motion picture industry as part of its ideological work, leading to artists being screened or forced to take a political stance” and that “This entirely unacceptable behavior goes against core values of artistic freedom and creativity.”
The MAC statement also asked Taiwanese artists seeking to develop their career in China “to carefully assess all associated risks, to consider the impact their words and actions have on the Taiwanese society, and to do their part to safeguard national sovereignty and dignity.” It also expressed hope for the Taiwanese people to “cherish their hard-won, free, and democratic way of life.”
It should be noted that China’s entertainment industry has been a death trap for certain unfortunate individuals. Taiwanese-Canadian model Godfrey Gao (高以翔) died on set while filming in Zhejiang province because of inadequate emergency medical response. Being bullied by the production crew of another Zhejiang show also exacerbated Asian-American songstress CoCo Lee’s (李玟) depression, who killed herself last year. Taiwanese celebrities who choose to remain in such a toxic environment are not only trading their soul and conscience for mere material gain, they are willing pawns in the CCP’s crusade against democracy and human rights.
TL;DR?
Taiwan is a country independent of China and its future can only be determined by the Taiwanese. The Chinese Communist Party has used its annexation ambitions to fuel Chinese patriotism and to distract netizens from its domestic socioeconomic woes. Taiwanese celebrities have to sign a “One China” oath before being granted access to the Chinese market, becoming pawns in the CCP’s star-studded attempts to reinvent its reality and mask its brutality.
Sponsored trips to troubled regions like Xinjiang are taken up by Taiwanese influencers who help to whitewash the CCP’s genocidal atrocities against the Uyghurs. Coordinated re-posting of Chinese propaganda on social media by Taiwanese celebrities who lend their star power to the communist party is a method of cognitive warfare aimed at swaying public opinion and amplifying the CCP’s narratives locally and abroad.
SEE ALSO
MAC: Taiwanese Public Opposes CCP’s So-called Guidelines for Punishing Taiwan Independence Separatists
No Man Is An Island: Recent Incidents Highlight Continued Coercion of Taiwanese Entertainers in China
來自五星的你：尼若拉・艾勒瑪 Nyrola Elimä：沉默是對暴政的一種支持
The Little Red Podcast: Cognitive hazing: The Disinformation War on Taiwan?
