Former NBA star angers China over referencing Taiwan as a country

We all know that China is extremely upset with the tensions between Taiwan and itself and the fact that the the US is interfering in their matters as they do not like other countries to even solve the dispute between China and Taiwan. Also, China believes that Taiwan is a part of Mainland China which is the reason why they are saying that Taiwan should reunite with them at any cost. We also mentioned that the US recognizes China and Taiwan as being one and the same under its “One-China” policy as well because of the fact that China does not like its allies recognizing Taiwan as a separate country.

Now, an incident happened in the US which has caused the Chinese side to get angry and this was done by a former NBA star named Dwight Howard who referenced Taiwan as a country which is exactly what China doesn’t want to hear. This was mentioned by Howard in a video with Taiwan’s Vice President after which China got triggered and its hashtags got trending on Chinese social media sites with the call to ban Howard and remove the video from the internet.

It is worth noting that in the video, the NBA star said that “Hello everyone, I’m Dwight Howard, and since I have come to Taiwan I have gained a whole new appreciation of this country.” He is now accused of promoting the independence of Taiwan to the world. It is also essential to note that this video was shot with Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai who is going to be the next Presidential Candidate for Taiwan’s ruling party in the elections next year which has also made China cross.

On the other hand, the Taiwan Government says that the decision for Taiwan to join China or not lies in the hands of its citizens and no one else. At the moment, since China does not let anyone recognize Taiwan as a separate nation, its players play under the “Chinese Taipei” name in any international events including the Olympics. It will be interesting to see what action China takes on Dwight Howard, as they have done in the past with others supporting Taiwan.