Music and mockery – the latest missiles in the Taiwan Strait propaganda war
- Taiwanese defence ministry blasts PLA propaganda video, calling warplanes ‘disgusting vultures’
- Derisive exchange follows latest mainland China military drills around the island
Taiwan has branded the warplanes of the People’s Liberation Army “disgusting vultures” and its ballistic missiles “irritating firecrackers” in the latest round of an influence war with Beijing.
The dismissive descriptions came after the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command released a propaganda music video on Monday at the end of its large-scale combat exercises around the island the previous day.
Entitled “My Hawk Warriors Circling Formosa Island,” the video, posted on the command’s WeChat social media account, featured shots of PLA fighter jets and bombers along with scenic aerial views of Taiwan.
The video also features a singer expressing his “homesickness and my gentle call for you to come back”.
“If you don’t come back, [we] will break your legs,” one person wrote online, referring to Beijing’s long-standing cross-strait unification position that Taiwan must return to the mainland’s fold, by force if necessary.
In response, the island’s defence ministry on Tuesday posted messages on social media that called the Chinese warplanes “disgusting vultures flying everywhere” while the mainland’s missiles were “irritating firecrackers blasting aimlessly.”