China Points and Laughs After Biden Admin Censors Taiwanese MinisterFrances Martel 14 Dec 2021
China’s state-run Global Times propaganda outlet published an editorial on Monday mocking the government of Taiwan after the administration of President Joe Biden censored a Taiwanese minister at its “Summit for Democracy” last week.
Biden’s State Department invited Taiwanese government officials to address the virtual event, meant to create a forum for democratic leaders to discuss growing threats from authoritarian governments and how to maximize freedom. America does not formally recognize Taiwan as a country – despite its fully independent sovereign government, military, and social institutions – as doing so would anger China, which falsely claims the island nation as a rogue “province.” The invite outraged China, however, as Taiwan appeared on a list of invitee names that only included other sovereign states, implying that Taiwan was among them.
The Chinese also protested that the Communist Party, a totalitarian institution currently engaging in genocide, was not invited to discuss how to strengthen democracy.
Taiwan’s pride in participating in the event was rapidly tarnished after the State Department abruptly cut Taiwanese Minister Audrey Tang’s feed – ironically, during a panel discussion on “digital authoritarianism” – when her screen showed a map created by an NGO classifying East Asia based on degree of civilian freedoms in each country. As Taiwan is a free democratic state and China is one of the world’s most repressive dictatorships, the two countries appeared in different colors.
The White House and State Department both formally claimed that technical errors and an “honest mistake” caused the feed to cut out. Reuters reported on Monday, however, that Biden officials panicked at the sight of the map and abruptly cut the feed for fear of offending the Communist Party of China.
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https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2021/12/14/china-points-and-laughs-after-biden-admin-censors-taiwanese-minister/
