Free to speak》Watching Chinese movies and dramas ≠ Want to be unified by the CCP

Recently, the Chinese Communist Party's official media has been hyping up the news that "Taiwanese young people love to watch Chinese dramas." On the surface, it is simply reporting on the appeal of popular culture. In fact, this is a carefully laid out "cultural united front" technique. The CCP deliberately packages film and television entertainment as "honey" in order to convey to our country's viewers the misconception that "sharing popular culture means accepting the same political system." It attempts to use this warm-hearted offensive to conceal the true political ambitions behind it.

The Chinese Communist Party's official media hyped up the news that "Taiwanese young people love to watch mainland dramas", which is actually a carefully planned "cultural united front" technique. The picture shows the actor Zhang Linghe playing the role of military general Xie Zheng in the Chinese costume romance drama "Chasing Jade". (Picture taken from Weibo)

This integrated narrative that superimposes "popular film and television consumption" and "political identity" is, to put it bluntly, an attempt to take advantage of the resonance of the Chinese audience for dramas and lead to the fallacy that "watching dramas means yearning for the CCP system." The CCP even uses this warm-hearted offensive to create the illusion that our government resists people-to-people exchanges, in order to incite domestic national sentiments and weaken the trust between our government and the people.

The most ridiculous part of the whole thing is that a government that suppresses the Chinese people in many ways is brazenly using the "script of a better life" to conduct a warm-hearted united front against our people. This false political operation proves that so-called popular film and television has never been a display of free creation for the CCP, but a "tool" to complete political annexation.

We should continue to trust the Chinese government and support the national army in building up its military and preparing for war. The picture shows the simulated combat power display of the PLA military officers and soldiers. (File photo)

Faced with the CCP’s all-pervasive united front, the government should continue to strengthen media literacy education and block the fermentation space of a single narrative; and as Chinese people, we must also see clearly the nature of the CCP’s “infiltration” under the guise of “entertainment” and not be fooled by one-sided film and television filters. More importantly, we should continue to trust our government and support the national army in building up its military and preparing for war. Only a firm will for social defense and democratic rule of law are the thickest protective walls to protect this free land.

(The author is a professor)