Chinese social media platform Weibo blocked a hashtag that made posts about the election among the most popular shortly after the polls in Taiwan opened.
The election is met with great excitement by the rest of the world, not least China and the United States.
The administrators of Weibo posted a message shortly after the polling stations in Taiwan opened their doors that posts with the hashtag related to the topic (read: the election) will not be displayed. However, it was still possible to see posts about the election, without the hashtag.
Weibo is a microblog and platform in China that is a mix of Chinese equivalents to the likes of X, and Facebook,
Weibo is estimated to have over half a billion active users. By Saturday morning, before the platform blocked the hashtag, posts with it had received more than 160 million views.
China sees the island nation of Taiwan as part of China and has threatened to intervene if the “wrong” leader is elected, i.e. a president who increases distance with China and further deteriorates relations
The Chinese military vowed yesterday Friday, the day before the election, to crush attempts to work for an independent Taiwan.
China believes that Taiwan should be incorporated into the People’s Republic.
”The Chinese People’s Liberation Army maintains high vigilance at all times and will take all necessary measures to firmly crush attempts at an ‘independent Taiwan’ in all forms,” Defense Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said in a statement.
He accused Taiwan’s ruling DPP party of bringing the island toward “dangerous war conditions” by buying weapons from the United States.
The election on the strategically and economically important island is being followed with great interest by the outside world as the election result will have a major impact on Taiwan’s relationship with China.