The controversy arose after 16-year-old [Taiwanese] Chou Tzuyu appeared recently on the South Korean variety show My Little Television holding a Republic of China (ROC) [aka Taiwanese] flag.
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Asked to comment on the issue, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Lin Chu-chia (林祖嘉) called for mutual respect, saying that culture and arts should be separate from politics.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) posted a photograph of the national flag on Thursday on its Facebook page, with the comment: “Support the national flag, support Chou Tzu-yu.”
People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) has also voiced support for Chou, as has Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who yesterday said that it was a citizen’s right to hold the national flag of their nation.
The 16 year old singer/dancer is part of Korean pop group Twice. This scandal has resulted in their + other JYP (her music label) artists' Chinese activities being discontinued:
Quote:
1. Twice recording for the Bei Jing Spring Festival Gala will be edited out
2. Twice was invited to the An Hui Spring Festival Gala, that is now removed
3. Twice CF deal with LG + Huawei has been terminated
4. Kuwo music (China's version of Spotify with over 1 million app downloads) has removed all JYP artists (Wonder Girls, 2PM, etc) songs and music videos
5. Kugou music (Same deal as Kuwo) has removed all of Twice songs and music videos (OP: Apparently a copyright issue)
6. Hunan TV (The channel that a lot of Kpop artists appear on) has voiced they will not be inviting supporters of Taiwan independence to their shows
The personal apology that has been uploaded to JYP's official channel got half a million views after an hour and has been stuck ever since