Chinese hackers have been unleashed onto Taiwan over Chou Tzuyu Taiwan flag row

Friday, January 29, 2016 by: S. Johnson
Tags: Chinese hackers, Taiwanese flag, Chou Tyuzu

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(NaturalNews) A South Korean entertainment company, criticized for forcing a teenage Taiwanese K-pop star to apologize for waving a Taiwanese flag on South Korean TV, has had its website taken down by hackers, a spokesman said Tuesday.

JYP Entertainment represents the singer, Chou Tzuyu, who was accused of supporting Taiwanese independence after briefly waving the Republic of China (ROC) flag on a South Korean TV show.

The incident did not occur on live television, but went viral in China and was brought up during Taiwan's election campaign. JYP Entertainment has suffered back-lashed for making Chou apologize for the innocuous act in an online video.⁽¹⁾

As reported by The Japan Times, "President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, from Taiwan's pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party, told sources Chou's video had seriously hurt the feelings of the Taiwanese people."⁽¹⁾

China's methods no better than the Islamic State

In the video, which was issued by JYP Entertainment, a nervous looking Chou bowed, apologized and emphasized that there was "only one China." Chou, who was born in Taiwan, said she considered herself to be a Chinese person and was proud of this.⁽²⁾

Taiwan has governed itself after a split with the Chinese mainland in 1949 following a civil war but was never formally declared independent.

JYP told South Korea's Yonhap news agency that its website had been down since Saturday, the day after Chou's apology was posted online.

"We're working to fix the problem but we don't know how long it will take to restore it," a spokesman for the company said.⁽²⁾

The company suspects it is a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, which is when a hacker floods a network with information that overwhelms its servers. However, officials do not know where the attack is coming from.⁽³⁾

The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei claims many Taiwanese people thought Chou's apology was humiliating for both her and Taiwan. A South Korean multicultural group claims it is lodging a formal complaint with the national rights watchdog about Chou's treatment and whether the apology was forced or not.⁽³⁾

It is difficult to distinguish Chou's apology video, which was both forced, scripted and humiliating, from a hostage video produced by terrorist organizations like the Islamic State (ISIS) group or al-Qaeda.

Just as recently, China announced that it had detained Hong Kong book seller Lee Bo for selling books critical of the country's totalitarian Communist Party. With recent incidences like these, it's clear that Beijing's tactics are no better than a terrorist organization.⁽⁴⁾

China's history of extremism and fanaticism

China has a history of extremism and fanaticism. The turmoil of the 1899 Boxer Rebellion in northern China and the 1966 to 1976 Cultural Revolution mirror the zealotry of ISIS.⁽⁴⁾

Whenever political regimes become unstable, dictators tend to stir frenzied emotion to secure their own power. The disorder at the 1899 Boxer Rebellion was motivated by Empress Dowager Cixi's importation of Western ideas, but the leaders of the revolt provoked the naive public to "Support the Qing and annihilate the West!"⁽⁴⁾

And in 1966, Mao Zedong fired the gun that triggered a Cultural Revolution, which was originally planned as a means for him to regain political power from Liu Shaoqi, who was at the time China's president and vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.⁽⁴⁾

It may be that Chinese President Xin Jinping encouraged Huang's malicious bullying. It is uncertain whether China intentionally added fuel to the fire of Han Chinese nationalism to maintain political power. What is known is that the world, let alone the people of Taiwan, must stand up against this kind of extremism and ultimate stupidity.

Sources include:

(1) JapanTimes.co.jp

(2) StraitsTimes.com

(3) BBC.com

(4) TaipeiTimes.com