Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, made his inaugural speech on May 20, titled “Building a New Taiwan of Democracy, Peace, and Prosperity,” emphasizing the new government’s stance on defending Taiwan’s sovereignty, which has irked the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In his speech, Lai Ching-te reiterated the four principles of the new government’s cross-strait policy – maintaining the status quo and asserting that the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other. Despite the CCP blocking related information online, they reacted strongly to Lai Ching-te’s statements on cross-strait relations.
This reaction from the CCP was evident as China’s state mouthpiece, CCTV News, published a post on May 22 titled “Anti-Taiwan Independence,” leading to several mainland Chinese celebrities reposting related content. Similarly, Taiwanese artists such as Barbie Hsu, Ou-yang Nana, Angela Chang, Rainie Yang, Ivy Chen, and Janine Chang followed suit by reposting messages like “China will eventually achieve complete unification” and “Taiwan will return to the embrace of the motherland.” Chinese netizens started compiling lists of Taiwanese celebrities based on whether they reposted such content or not.
One Taiwanese netizen on Dcard posted under the title “China’s Crazy Demand for Taiwanese Artists to State Their Position,” sharing a list made by mainland netizens. The list not only displayed the names of Taiwanese artists who did or did not repost the content but also had a note next to Jay Chou’s name saying “No WB (Weibo)” due to his absence from the platform.
Netizens praised Jay Chou for his intelligence in not having a presence on Weibo, with comments like “Jay Chou is really smart for not being on Weibo,” “Jay Chou is really strong; he doesn’t need to kneel,” and “Jay Chou doesn’t have Weibo, Kun Ling is a foreign national (Australian), these two earn money from China, but neither needs to make a statement.”
Netizens also discussed how the CCP carries out such political tasks annually, initially causing anger but eventually being viewed as humorous. Taiwanese netizens joked about their priorities, stating, “We care more about whether Hoshino Gen has had an affair.” This was in reference to rumors circulating on the social platform X (formerly Twitter) on May 22 about Japanese celebrity couple Yui Aragaki and Hoshino Gen facing marital issues, including the male party’s alleged extramarital affairs, which both figures denied, leading the topic to trend.
Regarding Jay Chou’s avoidance of Weibo, according to reports from Taiwan’s “Sanlih News,” in a past TV show where Jay Chou introduced his KTV business and the interactive features it offered, he inquired if his assistant played Weibo, to which the assistant confirmed. Jay Chou then confidently declared, “I don’t play because I don’t want to be like everyone else!”