The Taiwanese entertainers walking a cross-strait political tightrope

For the first time, the island is investigating artists who reposted content from official mainland sources

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Voicing support for the mainland can invite a backlash in Taiwan. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 6:15pm, 13 Mar 2025

When more than a dozen Taiwanese entertainers reposted the Chinese foreign minister’s reference last week to the island as a “province of China”, the response was swift on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The minister, Wang Yi, made the reference during his annual report to the “two sessions” in Beijing on Friday and state broadcaster CCTV included them in an online post with the slogan “Taiwan must return”.

CCTV urged people to repost it on their social media accounts and by the end of the day at least 18 artists from Taiwan had done so.

The entertainers gained widespread approval from users on those platforms and CCTV published screenshots of those who had shared the post.

The next day, though, Taipei hit back, with its Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) saying the artists were under investigation for deliberately reposting content from official mainland accounts that, it claimed, undermined the sovereignty of the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name.

While such reposting by Taiwanese artists is nothing new, it is the first time for the island to launch investigations, highlighting the political tightrope these entertainers must now walk to navigate ever-tenser cross-strait relations.