Chinese brands drop Taiwanese celebrity for celebrating 'national athletes' at Olympics

Taiwanese celebrity Dee Hsu has lost some endorsement deals from China as she called Taiwanese players "national athletes" on Instagram. According to multiple reports including AFP, Hsu, who is a former variety show host and boasts a huge following in China. The loss of the endorsement deals with Chinese brands come after Chinese Taipei's defeat of People's Republic of China in the Olympic men's doubles badminton final, where Hsu celebrated the success of Taiwanese athletes Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin. 

On its Weibo account, Shanghai-based ginger tea brand Shou Quan Zhai said that it immediately ceased all cooperation with Dee Hsu, citing that "national interest is above all and the company firmly uphold the one China principle". Sex toy brand Osuga also announced on Weibo that it would terminate any operation with Dee Hsu immediately, adding that Osuga firmly upheld the One China principle and and unification of motherland, as opposed all comments and actions that attempt to split the country".

Meanwhile, Taiwanese pop singer Jolin Tsai also sparked online anger in China after she shared photos of the badminton duo Lee and Wang, as well as other players on social media. The hashtag "Taiwan independence Jolin Tsai" started trending on Weibo with comments calling for state media in China to blacklist Tsai.

On the other hand, to support its athletes and celebrities, Taiwan's ministry of culture published a post on Facebook, saying that some athletes from other countries were criticised after the games and became a target that people vented their anger on. It added that "some artistes were heavily criticised due to his or her support for Taiwanese athletes" before condemning "a society that could not stand any dissent exerts tremendous political pressure on athletes and artistes pursuing their careers in the country."

The ministry further elaborated that in Taiwan, no athletes need to apologise if they fail to win a gold medal or lose a match; while no artistes need to apologise when they support their fellow Taiwanese athletes. It concluded that every athlete deserves the entire nation's praise and admiration, while every citizen deserves the basic freedom of speech in a civil society. 

Meanwhile, during the games the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka published several posts criticising Western media wires for using an unattractive photo of a Chinese Olympic weightlifting athlete.  On 24 July, the official account of The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka published a post, criticising Western media wires choosing an image showing Hou Zhihui's struggling face, with a caption: "Among all the photos of the game, @Reuters has chosen this one, which only shows how ugly they are. Don't put politics and ideologies above sports, and call yourself an unbiased media organisation. Shameless. Respect the spirit of #Olympics."

A day later, the same account published another post, reading "Same day, same Olympics, same @Reuters, different faces. Maybe it's because everything good in life comes easier for the white Westerners? We said that these biased MSM (mainstream media) are ugly. Never the athletes. They're beautiful, no matter their colors and nationalities." However, the embassy's criticism did not stop here. 

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