Comments and stickers calling Taiwan an inalienable part of China continued to flood the Facebook pages of the island's "president-elect" Tsai Ing-wen, as well as a number of pro-independence media outlets Thursday, as an online crusade by members of an Internet forum gathered strength.
It is the latest episode in a series of clashes between netizens across the Straits since the beginning of Taiwan's general elections, in which Tsai, chairwoman of Taiwan's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won a landslide victory on Saturday.
Members of the forum Di Ba, hosted by Internet giant Baidu, started posting the comments on Wednesday, even though the Facebook site is blocked in the Chinese mainland.
Analysts believe that the online campaign reflects how mainland youth perceive the Taiwan question and China as a country. They also called on the netizens to show restraint.
Starting at 7 pm Wednesday, comments and stickers from mainland netizens began to flood Tsai's Facebook page and the pages of Taiwan-based SET News and Apple Daily.
As of Thursday night, one of Tsai's posts had drawn over 43,000 comments.
The "crusade" was surprisingly well-organized. Participants were separated into different groups and were given different tasks such as designing stickers or collecting information. The Di Ba slogan for the campaign said that "when Di Ba goes into battle, nothing will grow."
Organizers of the campaign warned its members before the "battle" started to be civilized, stressing that their aim is to show their disapproval of Taiwan independence without targeting all Taiwan residents.
"The voices from the netizens, especially among the youth, will benefit our opposition toward Taiwan independence. The independence-leaning forces in the past used public opinion in Taiwan to put pressure on the mainland and the timely response will deal a powerful counterattack," said Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University, adding that the netizens' passion should be properly channeled.
Counterstrike
The crusade was launched as a counterstrike after Taiwan netizens flooded mainland actor Lin Gengxin's Facebook page with comments earlier this week. Lin implied on Saturday in a post on his Sina Weibo account that Taiwan pop singer Chou Tzu-yu's apology for waving the island's flag on a TV show lacked sincerity.
As of press time, the campaign has received over 710,000 hits on Sina Weibo. Several video streaming platforms broadcast the campaign live but were later shut down. One of the platforms, Douyu TV, gathered over 100,000 viewers minutes after the broadcast started.
Taiwanese news site SET News responded in a humorous way by saying that "the stickers are so funny" and that the mainland netizens "work so hard."
Many netizens, including some who participated in the campaign, later expressed their appreciation of SET News' composure in dealing with the incident.
Yang Xuedong, a research fellow at the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, told the Global Times that "the campaign could be seen as an emotional expression from the young public. It is a show in the name of political appeal. They want people to see their existence and hope to attract people's attention."
The outpouring may not affect the government's judgment and decisions in the short-term, Yang said, adding that he was concerned that this kind of campaign may push the Taiwan public away and make it more difficult for people across the Straits to communicate with each other
Yang's opinion was echoed by Yu Guoming, deputy dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at the Renmin University of China, who said that the emotional battle will not benefit China in the international relations sphere.