Taiwanese Mayday celebrity Jolin Tsai finds herself at the center of political fray amid rising tensions with China

CNN
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When Taiwan's biggest rock band took to the stage in Beijing late last month, their home island was facing China's latest act of aggression.

For two days, the self-governing democracy was surrounded by Chinese warships and fighter jets in its first major military exercises in more than a year.

Mayday's lead singer, Asin, who spoke to tens of thousands of fans at a sold-out Birds Nest Stadium, did not mention the assault, but his comments have caused significant friction in the aftermath.

“When we Chinese come to Beijing, we have to eat roast duck!” he said.

While this may have sounded like innocuous travel advice, his choice of words was politically charged: Ah-shin, one of Taiwan's biggest music stars, was calling himself Chinese, not Taiwanese.

The choice of words delighted audiences but sparked immediate outrage back home, reflecting the precarious position of Taiwanese stars who are popular in mainland China.

More and more people in Taiwan, especially the younger generation, see themselves as distinctly Taiwanese and have no desire to become part of China. China's authoritarian Communist Party considers the self-ruled island its territory even though it has never ruled it.

Beijing has long sought to bolster its claim to power by highlighting Taiwan's cultural and historical ties to China, but opinion polls show that only 3 percent of Taiwan's population identifies as primarily Chinese, while 67 percent identify as primarily Taiwanese, and fewer than 10 percent support immediate or eventual unification with China.

Under Xi Jinping, Beijing has grown more aggressive toward Taiwan and has severed official ties since Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2016. But there remains significant cultural overlap: Both sides speak Mandarin, and musicians from Taiwan, a country of 23 million people, often seek access to the lucrative market of 1.4 billion people across the strait.

As the political divide between Beijing and Taipei has grown, these artists have come under increasing pressure to toe the Beijing political line. The same night Mayday performed in Beijing, Taiwanese pop queen Jolin Tsai performed in the southern city and declared onstage that the fans in “our Chinese city, Nanchang” were the most enthusiastic, a phrase that some Chinese fans took to imply that she and the audience were compatriots.

Meanwhile, on China's X-like platform Weibo, dozens of Taiwanese actors, musicians and celebrities reposted state media posts defending Beijing's sovereign claims over Taiwan.

“'Taiwan independence' is a dead end, but the reunification of the motherland cannot be stopped!” CCTV said in the post, which has been retweeted nearly 18 million times since it was published last Wednesday.

On Douban, a popular site for film, book and music reviews, users created a list of about 100 Taiwanese celebrities, detailing whether each person had shared a post.

Others criticized Tsai Ing-wen for not reposting the kinship statement onstage, and one comment with 14,000 upvotes called for Chinese authorities to cancel her concert because she “never made that statement directly.”

CNN has reached out to Tsai Ing-wen for comment.

On Saturday, CCTV publicly supported Taiwanese celebrities who shared the post, sharing screenshots of 36 reposts and sparking further backlash against those who did not.

“Can't those who didn't support or take a stand come to the mainland to make money?” said the top comment, which received 55,000 upvotes.

Lin Chengyu, a lecturer at Cardiff University specialising in Chinese censorship of Taiwanese music, said artists such as Tsai Ing-wen and Mayday are facing problems because “both the government and private sector are increasingly responding to and engaging with digital nationalism”.

And the marketing machine that could launch a career in mainland China is similarly set up so as not to anger authorities in Beijing.

“For example, management and touring contracts for work in China increasingly include clauses prohibiting celebrities from making statements that oppose the ideology of the Chinese state,” she said. “Of course, this includes statements in support of Taiwan.”

Celebrities deemed to have crossed Beijing's political red lines are often barred from the Chinese market, with their names and work removed from television and online platforms.

“For example, if a musician's name becomes a keyword for censorship on these platforms or media, his or her work can be easily, and often automatically, removed from streaming platforms[in China],” Lin said.

While Mayday seemed to avoid incurring the wrath of Chinese authorities during their Beijing concert, many of their Taiwanese fans apparently disagreed.

The band, which has been active for over 25 years, is sometimes called the “Beatles of Asia” because an entire generation of Taiwanese people grew up listening to their optimistic, pop rock songs about youthful hope and heartbreak.

But now many fans say they are deeply disappointed.

“I used to like them but now I'm just as disappointed,” read a comment on Mayday's Facebook page after the Beijing concert.

“I'm Taiwanese. Bye,” one fan wrote on Asin's Facebook page.

CNN has reached out to Mayday's record label, B'in Music, for comment.

On Monday, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council accused the Chinese Communist Party of demanding that Taiwanese artists take a political stance.

“Such political tactics will not win the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese people, but rather will only deepen resentment in Taiwanese society toward the Chinese Communist Party regime,” the council said in a statement.

The comments and retweets of the Taiwanese artist's CCTV unification post came against the backdrop of China's largest show of force in more than a year near Taiwan. The Chinese military called the drills a “strong punishment” for Taiwan's so-called “separatist acts” and said they were designed to test its ability to “seize power.”

The military saber-rattling was prompted by the inauguration of Taiwan's new president, Lai Ching-te, who is openly disliked by Beijing for defending Taiwan's sovereignty and separate identity.

Amid growing backlash against musicians in Taiwan, Lai has offered a conciliatory stance.

“This is not the first time that a Taiwanese artist has been forced to take a political stance in China, and it probably won't be the last,” Rieder said.

“Under someone else's roof, what artists say is important, but what's more important is what they really feel in their hearts. We should show them understanding and empathy.”

Beijing officials said it was wrong for the Taipei government to claim the artists were being coerced.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office, said Taiwanese celebrities who reposted the “unification” messages on Weibo “wanted to express that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese”.

“These are natural expressions of true feelings,” Zhu said.

Cardiff University's Lin said Taiwanese companies would continue to be at a disadvantage in the Chinese market.

“But it is time for the industry in Taiwan to reassess what this means for our society,” she said. “The distribution of these works comes at a cost: a great loss of freedom and autonomy.”