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On the night of November 10, the notorious Chinese Internet censorship, also known as the Great Firewall, was lifted abruptly. A large number of Chinese netizens took the opportunity to breach the firewall and instantly took over DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s Facebook page. Normally there are about 700 comments below each post on Tsai’s page, but now there are already over 60 thousand comments below her latest post.

Most of the comments are verbal abuses from Chinese netizens and immediately angered Taiwanese netizens, breaking out online arguments between the two sides. However, Tsai posted another article talking about democracy this morning. Her assistants say the page will still post articles as usual without being influenced and disturbed by the chaos. They also say that they will not delete any posts on the page.

Liberty Times reports, the Chinese government strictly regulates speech on the Internet. Netizens in China cannot connect to Facebook, YouTube and other websites without the help of software designed for “climbing over” the Great Firewall.

On November 11, a Taiwanese netizen said that the Chinese government was said to be testing out lifting the ban on Facebook for Chinese netizens to access it through campus networks. Therefore, a large number of Chinese netizens flooded Tsai’s Facebook page, resulting in the fierce quarrel between netizens across the strait.

Apple Daily reports that DPP spokesperson Ruan Zhao-xiong says that he welcomes people from China to the world of Facebook. He also hopes that this rare experience can help them understand Taiwan better as well as the world.

Ruan also pointed out regarding network management rules, unless the speech shows a clear violation of the law, they will not delete any of the comments. He welcomes everyone to express their thoughts thoroughly and exchange different opinions with Taiwan netizens.

Tsai posted on her Facebook page this morning, denouncing the meeting between president Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese president Xi Jinping as well as emphasizing that Taiwan is a democratic country and its true owners are the people. Tsai says the most basic requirement is that the government should keep the people informed, assuring the parliament’s right to supervise the government and defending the dignity of the Taiwanese.

However, unfortunately, president Ma always forgets these basic requirements when dealing with cross-strait affairs. That’s the reason the Sunflower Movement broke out.

Tsai says that there are two kinds of people responsible for the student movement; one is the president, who didn’t care about public opinions and insisted on heading forth. The others are the legislators, who have no judgment abilities and are only blind followers of the president.

She also says a government like this does not believe that the people can decide for themselves, nor does it believe that the people have the ability to think and judge. That is why the people do not trust and is dissatisfied with the government.

Translated by Vic Chiang
Edited by Olivia Yang

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