Schedium

  A British teacher's remarks about Taiwan during an online English class have led to his dismissal from an educational platform in the People's Republic of China (PRC). On September 17, a video surfaced on Weibo showing the teacher stating, “Taiwan is not China; Taiwan is a country, did you know?” while instructing primary school students through Lingostar, an online teaching platform. Weibo screenshot   The teacher, who stated that he lived in Taiwan for a long time, sparked immediate backlash from parents present during the class. They insisted that “Taiwan belongs to China ,” leading to a heated exchange. The situation escalated when the teacher responded with a middle finger gesture before abruptly quitting the session. Lingostar quickly issued a statement affirming its commitment to the “one-China principle” and explaining that all teachers must sign a commitment letter prohibiting political discourse in the classroom. The teacher, still on probation, was promptly fired

The government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) allegedly recruited Taiwanese social media influencers to visit Xinjiang and produce content aimed at countering international criticism over its human rights abuses against the Uyghur population. On September 3, US Taiwan Watch (美國台灣觀測站), a non-profit think tank and media creator focused on the relationship between the United States and Taiwan, hosted a panel discussion on challenges facing the Taiwanese government. During the conference Su Ch’iao-ning (蘇巧寧), associate professor of the Department of Communications, Journalism and Public Relations at Oakland University, said that the trend of Taiwanese influencers making trips to Xinjiang appears to be a calculated effort to reshape the narrative surrounding the region and bolster the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She argued that the promotion of Xinjiang as a “simple and beautiful” destination on social media platforms serves to legitimise the CCP's ru

A journalist and a retired professor from Taiwan have been sentenced to prison for fabricating false public opinion polls during the 2024 presidential and legislative election campaign under the direction of the People's Republic of China (PRC). __________ Lin Hsien-yüan (林獻元), a Taiwanese journalist and head of Chih-tung New Media Communication Co., Ltd. (指動新媒體傳播有限公司), was accused by the District Prosecutor in Taichung City of fabricating false polls on behalf of Beijing for personal gain. Lin reportedly worked with Su Yün-hua (蘇雲華), a retired associate professor at the Department of Business Administration of Providence University (靜宜大學), to create nine fake polls under the direction of the PRC's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. They received 130,000 RMB (approximately 18,000 USD) to make the polls, which were intended to mislead voters and influence the election outcome. Prosecutors in Taichung alleged that in April 2023 Lin was invited by the Fujian Provincial Co

The Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Paris has found itself at the centre of a controversy for not displaying the national flag of the People's Republic of China (PRC).  Screenshot from Douyin, 张教官的有趣人生 _________ The incident began when a Chinese influencer, known for his Douyin channel "Instructor Zhang's Interesting Life" (张教官的有趣人生), posted a video on social media accusing the hotel of not displaying the PRC flag among the flags of the countries participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Douyin is a popular short-video platform in the PRC, launched in September 2016 by ByteDance. Its international counterpart is TikTok.  Zhang discovered that the lobby of the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Paris was adorned with flags of various countries, except for the PRC’s five-star red flag. Zhang and his crew uploaded a video in which they pleaded with hotel staff to hang the flag, even offering to give them one themselves. But the front desk refused. They claimed that they needed the perm

On August 11, the 2024 Paris Olympics wrapped up with the final medal count showing a tie between the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC) . Both teams finished the competition with 40 gold medals, but the US took the overall lead with 126 medals, leaving the PRC trailing with 91. However, PRC cyber-nationalists are not ready to accept this outcome. They insist that China actually won 44 gold medals! As the Olympics drew to a close on Sunday, PRC state media outlet CCTV News took to the micro-blogging platform Weibo to announce the results of the games:  “China is tied for first place in the gold medal list,” CCTV wrote. “Today, all the competitions in Paris have concluded. The Chinese delegation has won 40 gold medals, 27 silver medals and 24 bronze medals—an outstanding performance! Share this proudly, remember this glorious moment, and pay tribute to the Chinese athletes! #IAmProudOfTheChineseTeam.” But Chinese cyber-nationalists aka “little pinks” (小粉红) woul