China demands US explanation for a Twitter joke
A joke about the US secretly having a Taiwan destruction plan got viral. China took it seriously.
This is a story about how a Taiwanese political pundit’s failure to understand a joke on Twitter ultimately led to the Chinese government, who also took the joke seriously, publicly requesting that the US provide answers.
On Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, responding to a question from China’s state media, asks that the US give an explanation to the rumored Taiwan destruction plan that had been allegedly revealed by a US radio show host named Garland Nixon.
“I also want to know what is the ‘destruction of Taiwan’ plan,” Wang said. “The US should give a definitive explanation.”
This rumored plan has been covered by China’s state media for a few days now. Outlets, including the Global Times, Reference News and Xiake Dao, a social media account managed by the People’s Daily, all had reported on the alleged White House scoop.
Their reporting all credited Alex Tsai (蔡正元), a Taiwanese political pundit who harbors strong pro-China sentiments, for getting the information out.
But Tsai wasn’t the original source on this. In a social media post, he cited “prominent broadcast program host in Washington DC” Garland Nixon as the one who first unearthed the secret plan
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But the scoop, which was really just a tweet from Nixon, was meant to be a joke criticizing President Biden’s polices on Ukraine and Taiwan.
The tweet reads: BREAKING NEWS: White House insiders leak that, when asked if there could be any greater disaster than the neocon Ukraine project, President Biden responded, “wait until you see our plan for the destruction of Taiwan.”
The tweet is just one example of Nixon’s political running gag. David Demes, a German freelance journalist based in Taipei, on Twitter provided a few other examples of this series of jokes that all start with “BREAKING NEWS: White House insiders leak that…”.
In another one of these jokes, Nixon wrote “BREAKING NEWS: White House insiders leak that, when asked how he intended to help the people of East Palestine, Ohio President Biden responded ‘are you kidding me, that sh#thole town ain’t in Ukraine…C’mon man!’”
A train carrying hazardous chemicals recently derailed in the Ohio town. Local residents have been concerned about the contaminations and their own health and safety. Some residents have voiced frustrations that Biden visited Ukraine in recent weeks instead of East Palestine.
Alex Tsai is a member of the Kuomintang. It’s the political rival of Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan’s current ruling party. Attempting to debunk Tsai’s claim and discredit the alleged scoop, the government of Taiwan posted a statement on its website pointing out that Nixon works for a Russian propaganda agency.
According to Sputnik, a Russian state media that frequently echos Kremlin’s talking points, Garland Nixon “is a broadcast journalist at Radio Sputnik in Washington DC. Garland's work centres on foreign policy with a predominant focus on anti-imperialist movements worldwide.”
The bio states that Nixon was a regular guest appearing on Fox News from 2010 to 2019 and that he is a “civil libertarian” and serves on the National Board of Directors for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Alex Tsai might have seen Nixon’s Taiwan destruction tweet and failed to understand that it was a joke, or he didn’t really miss the sarcasm and simply wanted to attract attention and online traffic.
But either way, his Taiwan destruction post got thousands of likes on Weibo and the claim has been widely reported by China’s media outlets.
Online discussions also ensued. Commentators and influencers are quite serious about it.
Yang Fan, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, reposted on Weibo an article asking if Biden accidentally leaked the secret about destroying Taiwan or it was deliberate.
After being pointed out that Nixon’s tweet was misinformation, Tsai isn’t backing down. In an interview with Global Times, he says that his critics, especially those in Taiwan holding opposite political views to his, only disputed his claim because they didn’t want the truth out.
“Did Biden say this? Nobody has dared to ask this question. They are probably feeling unsettled deep down because they know Biden probably did say it,” Tsai told Global Times.
