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<h3 style="margin-top:0;"><a style="font-weight: 500; font-size: 21px;line-height: 30px; margin-top:25px; margin-bottom: 10px;" href="http://u.osu.edu/mclc/2017/07/10/tsai-ing-wen-embraces-twitter-as-megaphone/" target="_blank">Tsai Ing-wen embraces Twitter as megaphone</a></h3>
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<p>Source: NYT (7/6/17)<br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/world/asia/taiwan-tsai-twitter.html">Muffled by China, Taiwan President Embraces Twitter as Megaphone</a><br />
<a class="story-translations-link" href="https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20170707/taiwan-tsai-twitter/" data-version="zh-CN">点击查看本文中文版</a><<br />
By CHRIS HORTON</p>
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<div id="sharetools-story-meta-footer" class="sharetools theme-classic sharetools-story-meta-footer " data-shares="facebook,twitter,email,show-all,save" data-url="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/world/asia/taiwan-tsai-twitter.html" data-title="Muffled by China, Taiwan President Embraces Twitter as Megaphone" data-author="By CHRIS HORTON" data-media="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/06/28/world/xxtaiwan-tsai-1/xxtaiwan-tsai-1-jumbo.jpg" data-description="China has heightened its campaign to reduce Taiwan’s presence on the world stage, but President Tsai Ing-wen is trying to use the service to overcome that isolation." data-publish-date="July 6, 2017" data-share-tools-initialized="1">
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<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="325" data-total-count="325">TAIPEI, Taiwan — Over the past year, <a class="meta-loc" title="More news and information about China." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/index.html?inline=nyt-geo">China</a> has doubled down on its campaign to reduce <a class="meta-loc" title="More news and information about Taiwan." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/taiwan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo">Taiwan</a>’s presence on the world stage, whether by luring away its few remaining diplomatic allies — most recently Panama — or blocking its participation in international organizations like Interpol and the World Health Organization.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="101" data-total-count="426">Now President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan is trying to tweet the island back into the global conversation.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="541" data-total-count="967">Ms. Tsai had her first encounter with Twitter’s reach in December, when Donald J. Trump, newly elected to the White House, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/804848711599882240">wrote on Twitter</a> that she had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/us/politics/trump-speaks-with-taiwans-leader-a-possible-affront-to-china.html?_r=0">called to congratulate him</a>. His announcement made headlines around the world. It was believed to have been the first time an American president or president-elect had spoken with a leader of the island since at least 1979, when the United States broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China, as part of its recognition of the People’s Republic of China.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="541" data-total-count="967"><a href="https://u.osu.edu/mclc/files/2017/07/tsai-twitter-1-1kdfj09.jpeg"><img style="max-width:100%" class="alignnone wp-image-20794" src="https://u.osu.edu/mclc/files/2017/07/tsai-twitter-1-1kdfj09-300x114.jpeg" alt="" /></a></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="162" data-total-count="1129">Weeks later, Ms. Tsai revived her moribund Twitter account, posting regularly in English and sometimes in Japanese. Since then, her followers have nearly tripled.</p>
<p>Taiwan is a beautiful island, yet Taiwanese politics is ugly. A small nation with very complex history and tangled emotions about its...</p>
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<p id="story-continues-2" class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="399" data-total-count="1528">Her office says her rekindled interest was spurred by outreach from Twitter itself, not by the Trump episode. But there are certain parallels between Ms. Tsai and President Trump. Where Mr. Trump uses the service to bypass what he considers a biased news establishment and to address the public directly, Ms. Tsai appears to see it as a means to circumvent the diplomatic isolation imposed by China.</p>
<p id="story-continues-3" class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="296" data-total-count="1824">“Twitter, and more broadly, digital diplomacy, provides Taiwan with an easy and cost-effective way to connect and engage internationally,” said Danielle Cave, a Google Policy Fellow at the <a href="https://www.digitalasiahub.org/">Digital Asia Hub</a>, a nonprofit organization based in Hong Kong that researches society and the internet.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="178" data-total-count="2002">“Frankly, Taiwan’s future is tenuous, and their international space is increasingly limited at a time when they need their voice to be heard more than ever,” Ms. Cave said.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="281" data-total-count="2283">China claims self-governed Taiwan as part of its territory, and its diplomatic relations with other countries are conditional on their agreement not to recognize the island as independent. That has led to Taiwan’s exclusion from the United Nations and other international forums.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="349" data-total-count="2632">Only 20 countries maintain formal relations with Taiwan, a list that has shrunk by two since Ms. Tsai took office in May 2016. She has resisted demands from Beijing that she endorse the so-called One China principle, which holds that Taiwan and China are part of a single country, although each side has its own views on how that country is defined.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="351" data-total-count="2983">In December, Mr. Trump briefly cast doubt on America’s adherence to its One China policy, when he broke with longstanding practice by sharing a call with Ms. Tsai. He later said he would honor the policy, but <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/804848711599882240">his Twitter message</a> announcing the conversation stunned China watchers and gave Ms. Tsai her first taste of global exposure on social media.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="300" data-total-count="3283">Weeks later, Ms. Tsai stopped by Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, on her way back from <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/world/americas/taiwan-president-tsai-central-america-china.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FTaiwan">visiting diplomatic allies in Central America</a>. The company had contacted Ms. Tsai’s office about reviving her account, said Vincent Chao, chief of staff to the secretary general at the Presidential Office.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="298" data-total-count="3581">Ms. Tsai, who joined Twitter in 2010, had previously posted in Chinese, but she stopped in May 2014, primarily because relatively few people in Taiwan use the service, Mr. Chao said. For domestic engagement, Ms. Tsai posts in Chinese on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tsaiingwen/">her Facebook page</a>, which has more than 2.1 million followers.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="286" data-total-count="3867">Describing the past few months of Twitter diplomacy as “fairly successful,” Mr. Chao said that the number of people who follow the account had risen since January from 36,800 to more than 100,000. They include foreign journalists and others who can communicate Taiwan’s positions.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="200" data-total-count="4067">“It’s followed by journalists from most major publications from around the world,” he said. “Increasingly, we’re seeing interest from politicians in the U.S., Japan and other democracies.”</p>
<p id="story-continues-4" class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="156" data-total-count="4223">Alex Huang, a spokesman for the Presidential Office, noted, “The broad role of this is to increase international exposure for the president and Taiwan.”</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="249" data-total-count="4472">“There’s a core group of people working on Twitter that have been with President Tsai for quite a while, and we also have people who provide input from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies on specific issues,” he said.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="407" data-total-count="4879">For her part, Ms. Cave said, “The president’s tweets are clearly crafted for an international audience.” She added: “Most of her tweets are concerned with foreign affairs, and given how little international media the president has done since she took office, it has become the primary vehicle to keep track of Taiwan’s international priorities and how the president sees cross-strait relations.”</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="284" data-total-count="5163">Since her return to Twitter, Ms. Tsai has posted more than 100 times. Initial messages rarely broached sensitive subjects. But that has changed in recent weeks. In May, she wrote 13 times about Taiwan’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/world/asia/taiwan-world-health-china-.html">exclusion from the World Health Assembly</a>, which happened at Beijing’s behest.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="284" data-total-count="5163"><a href="https://u.osu.edu/mclc/files/2017/07/tsai-twitter-2-2lfp646.jpeg"><img style="max-width:100%" class="alignnone wp-image-20795" src="https://u.osu.edu/mclc/files/2017/07/tsai-twitter-2-2lfp646-300x127.jpeg" alt="" /></a></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="357" data-total-count="5520">Many recent posts have dealt with attempts by China to isolate Taiwan, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/world/asia/taiwan-panama-china-diplomatic-recognition.html">Panama’s decision to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan</a> in favor of recognizing Beijing. “China’s coercion & threats won’t bring two sides closer, they will drive our two ppls apart. We will never surrender to such intimidation,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/iingwen/status/874585982573596672">wrote</a> hours after the news broke.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="284" data-total-count="5804">On the anniversary of the June 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Ms. Tsai also posted several times, saying the protesters “<a href="https://twitter.com/iingwen/status/871183529559810048">inspired a generation</a>” and offering to share Taiwan’s experiences in its own transition to democracy.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="284" data-total-count="5804"><a href="https://u.osu.edu/mclc/files/2017/07/tsai-twitter-3-15g8zpk.jpeg"><img style="max-width:100%" class="alignnone wp-image-20796" src="https://u.osu.edu/mclc/files/2017/07/tsai-twitter-3-15g8zpk-300x127.jpeg" alt="" /></a></p>
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<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="226" data-total-count="6030">Although Twitter is blocked in China, some citizens who employ virtual private networks to bypass their country’s “great firewall” are clearly following Ms. Tsai’s account, and even the state news media is taking note.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="322" data-total-count="6352">Mr. Chao said that when Ms. Tsai wrote her Tiananmen anniversary messages, “there were a lot of Chinese netizens that posted comments saying, ‘We hope you can help encourage China to become democratic,’” while others were critical. “We also had Chinese people saying, ‘This has nothing to do with Taiwan.’”</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="291" data-total-count="6643">Last week, People’s Daily <a href="https://twitter.com/PDChina/status/879970608573857792">used Twitter</a> to call attention to an article titled “Taiwan leader’s Twitter post infuriates the public,” in response to <a href="https://twitter.com/iingwen/status/879673200979828736">her message</a> in which she thanked Japan, in Japanese, for its support of Taiwan’s bid to join the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/business/tpp-explained-what-is-trans-pacific-partnership.html?mcubz=1">Trans-Pacific Partnership</a> trade deal.</p>
<p id="story-continues-5" class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="67" data-total-count="6710">Mr. Chao welcomed the new online arena for cross-strait engagement.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="182" data-total-count="6892" data-node-uid="1">“It’s not just Chinese people being angry at President Tsai,” he said. “Hopefully they see it as an area where they can freely discuss their views on different situations.”</p>
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by <a href="mailto:denton.2@osu.edu">denton.2@osu.edu</a> on July 10, 2017 </div>
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