Teenage singer becomes political pawn in Taiwan-China rift

comments     dpa     Published     Updated

A teenage singer was forced to apologise for publicly displaying a Taiwan flag in South Korea, and became suddenly caught up in the island’s electoral politics, analysts said today.

Chou Tzu-yu, a 16-year-old member of the South Korean female pop group Twice, was reportedly pressured by its management company to apologise in a video circulated on YouTube.

Public display of the flag angers China, which considers Taiwan a rogue province rather than a sovereign nation.

Chou’s apology and declaration that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait are part of China” and that she “is proud to be a Chinese” were circulated on the eve of Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

Front-running Democratic Progressive Party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen stated that the incident “gravely hurt the feelings of the Taiwanese people”. She said displaying the national flag is “a normal sign of national identification and should not be suppressed”.

Outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou and his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also expressed support for the girl Chou and criticised her South Korean management.

However, Taiwanese political analyst Lee Ming-jun said the incident would hurt the incumbent China-friendly KMT in the polls.

“Seeing a Taiwanese teenager humiliated and forced to declare that she is Chinese will anger many voters and boost turnout,” the Taiwan Brain Trust executive director told dpa today.

- dpa



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