January 18, 2016 2:34 PM ET
Anthony Kuhn
It might seem unusual that a 16-year-old Taiwanese pop starlet could motivate legions of youth to troop to the polls and vote for the island's opposition party candidate. But she apparently did, and thereby helped Democratic Progressive Party leader Tsai Ing-wen become Taiwan's democratically first elected female leader.
Chou Tzu-yu, popularly known as Tzuyu, is usually pictured prancing, bopping and singing in her South Korean girl band Twice's music videos. But in November, she made an apparently unpremeditated political statement by appearing on South Korean television, holding a Taiwanese national flag.
Mainland Chinese Internet users immediately accused her of advocating formal independence for the self-governing island. Mainland China's government sees Taiwan as a province with no right to a national flag, and has threatened war if it declares formal independence.
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"I was on a high-speed train from Taipei back to my hometown of Taichung to vote," Taipei-based blogger and e-book editor Wen Li recalls in an interview. "The whole train was packed, and everybody crowded aboard. Many of these passengers may not have intended to return home to vote. But because of this incident, people felt a crisis, they felt 'if I don't vote, maybe I, my family or friends will be the next to have to apologize.' "
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This was classic communist shaming and forced self criticism.
Straight out of the Cultural Revolution.
The Korean entertainment company are spineless.
Hang An is as low as they come.
ChiComs have and will do similar things to our corporations. Just not as ham fisted blatant.
Weird thing is ROC flag is a Chinese flag.
She wasn’t holding the green island flag.
And what could possibly be wrong with that?
How does the flag of the Republic of China support independence from China?