American hedge fund manager Kyle Bass announced on Sunday that he had made new t-shirts for the Chinese Ambassador and the Chinese Embassy in the United States. In the t-shirt, China was marked as ‘West Taiwan’.
https://twitter.com/Jkylebass/status/1406402531987701760?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe ‘West Taiwan’ t-shirt did manage to attract the attention of Hu Xijin, the Editor-in-Chief of the Global Times, who had been tagged in Bass’ tweet. He made a weak attempt at a joke, dubbing the USA ‘East Taiwan’.
https://twitter.com/HuXijin_GT/status/1406497562991857666?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe t-shirt, however, did find quite a few other takers.
https://twitter.com/Jkylebass/status/1406404166898102274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/juanagu89122117/status/1406453727737774080?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwHowever, in his enthusiasm to mock China, Kyle Bass ended up showing Indian territory as part of China. The t-shirt shows Ladakh as part of ‘West Taiwan’ and includes Tibet in the same as well.
https://twitter.com/Ch_AmitDhankhar/status/1406504449409945600?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe t-shirt earned the businessman a lot of criticism as well. Someone called him an ‘attention seeking drama queen’.
https://twitter.com/tillingfolk/status/1406488613450227713?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwAnother account, apparently Chinese, said it was ‘humiliating’ which made him/her suffer ‘second hand embarrassment’.
https://twitter.com/mitasuyou/status/1406522142443720708?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwWhile mocking China is indeed commendable, it is perhaps better to do a little research before engaging in such antics. Otherwise, a person runs the risk of committing goof-ups, as the person did by including Indian territory in China, thus, appearing to bolster Chinese claims.
China has long claimed that Taiwan is a part of itself and has prevented other countries from recognizing the latter as a separate country. The Chinese Communist Party is quite touchy about the matter and reacts quite disproportionately whenever someone calls Taiwan a country.