Reuters
Date: AUGUST 17, 2018
By: Reuters Staff
A paramilitary police officer is seen silhouetted in front of flags as he stands guard during the third plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, China March 10, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song
BEIJING (Reuters) – Police in China have detained a man who asked on social media what law prevented anyone calling self-ruled Taiwan a country, questioning a fundamental principle of China’s sovereignty.
Taiwan is China’s most sensitive diplomatic and political issue.
Beijing views the democratic island as merely a wayward province and it has stepped up a campaign against the island as it tries to assert Chinese sovereignty.
Police in the northeastern city of Maanshan said an 18-year-old unemployed man, identified by the family name Yang, had used his Weibo social media account to post questions on a police Weibo including: “What law says you can’t call Taiwan a country?”.
The young man also wrote that Japanese Prime Shinzo Abe was his “real father”, police said in a statement, adding that what he wrote was against the law and “profaned the people’s feelings”. [FULL STORY]