Experts Condemn China’s Advisory Body’s ‘Special Operation in Taiwan’ Proposal

Delegates take part in the closing session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 10, 2022. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

A member of Beijing’s political advisory body proposed creating a blacklist of pro-Taiwan Independence figures and a “special operation” in Taiwan targeting the individuals on the list to promote “unification” at all costs.

Commentators condemned the proposal as a form of terrorism and accused the regime of manipulating false public opinion and populist brainwashing.

Terrorist Propaganda

On March 4, essayist and blogger Zhou Xiaoping, a newly appointed delegate, proposed to create an execution list, the “Taiwan Separatists Blacklist,” and punish the separatists during the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing.

He publicized part of his proposal on his Weibo account and claimed that during the “special operation” in Taiwan, anyone can “arrest or shoot the target” without not only being held accountable but also honored for promoting the reunification of Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China.

The CPPCC was said to have adopted the proposal, according to Zhou in his Weibo post.

That the state censorship allowed his post to remain online to this day signals the “approval of the ‘vicious’ message,” former Chinese diplomat Han Yang said in a Twitter post on March 7.

Alan H. Yang, executive director of the Taiwan–Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF), characterized Zhou’s comments as those of a terrorist and criticized his proposal as being terrorism.

He also called on the public to safeguard Taiwan’s civil and orderly democracy.

“Free expression is limited to trampling on the lives, security, and peace of others,” and Zhou’s remarks are a violation of “international laws and universal values of mankind and civilization,” Yang said to the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times on March 5.

He believes that Zhou was trying to catch the attention of the Chinese leadership. Yang said, “I found his words extremely aggravating,” and he strongly condemned such propaganda.

The United Front ‘Flower Vase’

Feng Chongyi, associate professor of China studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, indicated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been manipulating populism and relying on public figures such as Zhou to brainwash and fool the populace.

The 41-year-old Zhou is best known as the “Big 50 Cent,” a pro-CCP and anti-West blogger.

Feng said that Zhou earned his publicity with his ideological posts, which earned material rewards from the CCP.

His posts provide the CCP with convenient propaganda. The overseas pro-CCP members would advocate Zhou’s online posts as the mainlanders’ “public opinion;” the CCP would then import the overseas agents’ comments back to China and touted them as “praise from the international arena,” according to Feng.

“Together, they control Chinese cyberspace,” Feng said.

Now Zhou has won himself a new title—a member of the CPPCC—also known as the “political flower vase.” Members of the CPPCC act as if they work on behalf of all Chinese people, functioning as the surface advisory body for CCP political and economical policy, but in fact, they kowtow to the CCP and abide by its united front work.

Zhou was arrested in 2009 for being involved in operating an online porn site, but very soon, his online posts also found their niche by praising the CCP and got him appointed as chairman of the Sichuan Network Writer Association in 2015.

Chinese netizens mocked his writings as vulgar and rubbish. In 2018, he resigned from the association.

In June 2022, he proposed with “bloody tears” that the authorities should establish “Ideology Management” and vowed to devote his life to dealing with the “anti-Communist, pro-West” figures in the literature and art sector, he said in his long article.

Chinese netizens believe this post was how he pleased the high leadership and earned his new title.

Haizhong Ning and Luo Ya contributed to this report.