China’s state-run propaganda outlet recently published an editorial mocking Taiwan’s government after President Joe Biden censored a Minister at the Summit for Democracy. Biden’s State Department invited Taiwanese officials to address the virtual meeting. The event was intended to provide a platform for democratic leaders to discuss increasing threats from authoritarian regimes and how to maximize freedom. America doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a nation – despite Taiwan’s fully independent sovereign government and military.
The State Department cut Taiwanese Minister Audrey Tang’s feed, causing Taiwan’s pride to be quickly tarnished. This was ironic during a panel discussion about “digital authoritarianism”. The two countries were portrayed in different colors, as Taiwan is a democratic country and China is one of the most oppressive dictatorships in the world.
Both the White House and State Department claimed that the feed was cut due to technical errors and an “honest error”. Reuters reported that Biden officials panicked at seeing the map and cut the feed out of fear of offending the Communist Party of China.
Since then, the State Department has shared a link on Youtube to Tang’s full address, including the map. The Global Times editorial stated that it was “the natural pleasure of watching a traitor be slapped in his face by his master.
Washington tries to avoid crossing [China’s red line], which is due to the increasing strength of the former. The editorial stated that China has greater faith in itself than it does in the U.S. and is more open to accepting its “rationality”. The media used the term “the Chinese mainland” to refer to China’s legal territory, which is a colonialist term that implies that all things other than what is legally China belong to Beijing.
The Global Times claimed that the U.S was benefitting diplomatically by Taiwan not being recognized as a Chinese territory or seen as such, which is in direct contradiction to Taiwan’s independence.
Biden has not yet apologized or addressed the Summit in any way. China’s dictator Xi Jinping has made Taiwan more hostile. In a 2019 speech, Xi threatened that any Taiwanese who supported Taiwan’s status as a free nation would be “boned to powder.” He also promised the same promise to Hong Kong anti-communist protesters.
