The rise of the Little Pink: China’s angry young digital warriors
Who are these angry Chinese dominating the internet with their jingoistic rage, where are they from and how did they emerge? We tell you
TOP PICKS
Young Chinese looking at a smart phone. With the technology the army can go to the frontline at anytime. Photo: AFP
Chinese student Yang Shuping’s comments at her graduation day at the University of Maryland in the United States were arguably innocuous. She joked on Sunday
. Her comments, however, triggered a huge backlash in China as internet users accused her of distorting the truth and belittling her home country.Days earlier, Chinese actress Xu Dabao turned heads on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in a bright red dress featuring the five stars of the national flag. The dress prompted accusations that she had desecrated the flag.
China’s military
Register and follow to be notified the next time content from China’s military is published.
China-US relations: USS Curtis Wilbur sails through Taiwan Strait
- PLA confirms the warship’s movements were fully monitored as it travelled through the sensitive waterway
- Passage marks sixth transit by a US naval vessel of potential flashpoint since President Joe Biden took office in January
The USS Curtis Wilbur during its transit of the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday. Photo: Handout
A United States warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait over Beijing’s protests, in the sixth such transit near the self-ruled island under US President
administration.The USS Curtis Wilbur, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, conducted a “routine transit” through the strategic waterway that separates
from mainland China on Tuesday to “demonstrate the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific”, according to a US Navy statement.“The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows,” it said.
10:22
Why has the relationship between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan taken a turn for the worse?
It was the sixth transit by the US Navy since Biden took office. Washington has made clear its focus on the Indo-Pacific region, including the use of freedom of navigation exercises in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea to counter Beijing’s growing maritime presence.
But there have been increasing concerns that the strait could become a flashpoint in the heightened strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington.
As Taiwan has faced growing political and military pressure from Beijing, the US has ramped up its support, including last week’s shipment of 2.5 million
doses to the island, and Taiwan-friendly statements with its alliesThe US Navy’s latest transit was fully monitored by China’s military, Zhang Chunhui, a spokesman for China’s Eastern Theatre Command, said on Wednesday.
“The US has repeated its old tricks to create disruption in the Taiwan Strait, deliberately sabotaging regional security and seriously damaging the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the US destroyer had sailed northward through the strait, and that the Taiwanese military had a full grasp of relevant activities in its sea and airspace.
The USS Curtis Wilbur previously sailed through the Taiwan Strait in
, prompting condemnation from Beijing that it was sending the “wrong signals” to Taiwanese independence forces. Beijing claims democratic Taiwan as its own, and has made it a priority to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary.On that occasion, the US destroyer then headed into the disputed South China Sea – the vast majority of which is claimed by Beijing – for a week of joint operations with the Australian Navy. China’s foreign ministry commented that the US and Australia should “do more to promote regional peace and stability rather than flex muscles”.
Taiwan’s defence ministry has also reported a steady stream of sorties by PLA air force warplanes into the island’s air defence identification zone in recent months, in what observers have termed “grey zone warfare” tactics.
Last week, the PLA sent its largest force yet – 28 aircraft – into the identification zone, one day after the USS Ronald Reagan carried out exercises in the South China Sea as part of the US’ efforts to ensure a “free and open Indo-Pacific region”.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: American warship sails through strait in ‘routine transit’
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="122" height="122"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
SCMP Editorials
Opinion
Harry's View
Letters