Photo taken on April 28, 2020 shows the US Capitol building in Washington DC, the United States. Photo: Xinhua

 Some pro-separatism Taiwan media outlets started flattering Katherine Tai, the potential new top trade representative of the US selected by US President-elect Joe Biden, because of her Taiwan-linked background even though her parents and grandparents were from the Chinese mainland. 

Biden on Thursday named Tai, a trade lawyer with a history of taking on China, as his incoming administration’s pick for US top trade representative. 

Taiwan-based media cna.com.tw called Tai “the second generation of Taiwan” in the US. Other media on the island called her the granddaughter of Tai Li, the anti-communist spymaster and head of Military Intelligence Service in the former Republic of China (1912-49) ruled by Kuomintang (KMT).

According to Taiwan media chinatimes.com, Tai’s grandfather is actually a professor at Taiwan Normal University and was born in East China’s Jiangsu Province. Tai’s father was born in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. 

Many netizens mocked pro-separatist Taiwan media with strong anti-mainland sentiment as the “kinship” that they claimed of Tai is proving the people of Taiwan are Chinese and many of them are from the mainland. 

This is not the first time Taiwan media outlets claimed “kinships” with distance political figures, even though they are citizens of the countries they serve.

Tai, 45, was born in Connecticut, the US. She speaks Putonghua fluently and is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. She taught English for two years at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, South China, from 1996 to 1998, according to media report.