China's official state media has put an end to the upset regarding one K-pop star.
China's People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, has declared that there was nothing wrong with TWICE member Chou Tzuyu waving a Taiwanese flag on a Korean television show.
"Chou's waving of the flag [of Taiwan] is an act of recognizing the 'Republic of China'," read an article by the People's Daily published on Sunday, according to the South China Morning Post.
"The expression of the Republic of China contains the 'one China' principle. 'One China with respective interpretations' is an understood concept across the strait."
Taiwan, the Republic of China, and China, the People's Republic of China, agreed to the concept of "one China" in 1992, with the understanding that China is one, but that the two countries can have their own interpretation of what that means.
The People's Daily article said that the situation related to Tzuyu was because of the different interpretations, but that her actions were not problematic to China and not seen as the acts of a separatist.
The 16-year-old came under immense pressure from China, affecting her promotional activities and those of others under the same entertainment agency, following Taiwanese anti-pro independence Taiwanese singer Huang An.
Huang's music has since been banned from airplay by Taiwanese media for causing a controversy that shook Sino-Taiwan politics ahead of Taiwan's recent elections, reports Asiaone.
The People's Daily also said that the situation led from anti-independnece to anti-Taiwanese viewpoints from many Chinese internet users, with others calling for unification of the two countries by force.
"We should think about how to let the Taiwanese youth get to know the truth and the history. Labelling them as 'Taiwan separatists' is the most unwise thing to do."
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Tamar Herman is a multi-media journalist and the co-founder of KultScene. She is a freelance writer and copy editor, and has written for MTV Iggy, Noisey, and Paste Magazine.
