A spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy was the subject of an avalanche of ridicule online on Monday August 8, for a tweet in which she justified Taiwan's belonging to China ... by the number of Chinese restaurants on the 'island.
"
Baidu Maps (one of the main map applications in China, editor's note) shows that there are 38 restaurants (offering Chinese province cuisine) from Shandong and 67 noodle restaurants (from Shanxi province) in Taipei
" , wrote Hua Chunying on Sunday on Twitter, a social network blocked in China.
“
The taste buds don't lie.
#Taiwan has always been part of China.
The long-lost child will eventually return home,
”said the spokesperson, well known to the general public in her country, in English.
Hilarious netizens
China considers Taiwan, an island with a population of around 23 million, to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the civil war. Chinese (1949).
Hua Chunying's argument for asserting China's sovereignty over Taiwan sparked laughter from many foreign netizens.
"
There are over 100 ramen (noodle) restaurants in Taipei, so Taiwan is definitely part of Japan
," one of them quipped on Twitter, in response to the spokesperson's tweet.
“
Google Maps shows that there are 17 McDonald's, 18 KFC, 19 Burger King and 19 Starbucks in Beijing.
The taste buds don't lie.
#China has always been part of America
“Wrote another ironically, using the same formulation as Hua Chunying.
Read alsoHow the blockade of Taiwan weighs on the world economy
Hua Chunying, known for her sometimes acerbic and not always diplomatic remarks, is very active on Twitter.
Like her, many Chinese diplomats have invested in the blue bird social network in recent years to defend, sometimes vehemently and controversially, the position of their government.
One of the figures of this generation of uninhibited diplomats is Zhao Lijian, another spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At the start of the pandemic, Zhao Lijian notably caused a lively controversy by suggesting that American military athletes may have brought Covid-19 to China during a sports competition.