Chinese state media blasted television host John Oliver’s comedy segment on Taiwan, saying he “dodged facts” and misled the public about the self-ruled island that Beijing considers a breakaway province.
“As a comedian show that sometimes covers politics, it is not surprising that it didn’t take the issue seriously,” the nationalistic state-owned tabloid Global Times said in an opinion piece Tuesday. “Yet it reflected that most Westerners don’t know why the Taiwan question matters and they don’t care about it.”
The English-language news outlet is the Chinese government’s main vehicle for communicating unofficial government messages to Western audiences.
During the segment, Oliver sought to untangle the complicated relationship between China and Taiwan for an American audience. Mixing historical narratives, pop culture references and salty language, Oliver concluded that the island’s fate should be left up solely to the Taiwanese people.
U.S.-China tensions have climbed recently over Taiwan, with Beijing sending scores of aircraft into the island’s air defense identification zone in recent months. President Joe Biden also said the U.S. would defend Taiwan from attack, a statement that appeared to shift American policy from one of “strategic ambiguity” in the case of a Chinese invasion. White House officials have since said U.S. policy is unchanged.
A senior Taiwanese government official took to Twitter on Tuesday to playfully chide Oliver over the segment.
“I firmly support our soldiers’ dancing and demand a full apology from John Oliver,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka wrote in the post, adding a grinning, squinting emoji face. Oliver had poked fun at a recruitment video for the island’s military during the almost 20-minute segment of the HBO series “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” on Sunday.
I firmly support our soldiers’ dancing and demand a full apology from John Oliver 😆 https://t.co/FdzL1fTVVV
— Kolas Yotaka (@Kolas_Yotaka) October 26, 2021
China blocked U.S. film and television production company HBO’s website in 2018 after Oliver aired a segment criticizing President Xi Jinping for censorship.
Also read: Taiwan being trampled under China’s foot, and UK pays tribute to murdered MP David Amess
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