Read on Twitter
Collating tweets, I’ve found an alarming increase in the use of a genocidal phrase on Twitter by Chinese ultranationalists toward Taiwan, especially in 2020.
(Note: this is an English version of a Chinese thread I recently published.)
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![Collating tweets, I’ve found an alarming increase in the use of a genocidal phrase on Twitter by Chinese ultranationalists toward Taiwan, especially in 2020.(Note: this is an English version of a Chinese thread I recently published.)[1]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvNNoAWoAASEgw.jpg "Collating tweets, I’ve found an alarming increase in the use of a genocidal phrase on Twitter by Chinese ultranationalists toward Taiwan, especially in 2020.(Note: this is an English version of a Chinese thread I recently published.)[1]")
(Note: this is an English version of a Chinese thread I recently published.)
[1]
留岛不留人 (literally “keep the island, rid of its people”) advocates mass atrocities against Taiwanese. Often accompanied by 武统 “unification through invasion,” 杀光台湾人”murder all TWese,” or 核平台湾 “nuke TW.”
Between 2017-19, its frequency increased 470% on Twitter.
[2]
![留岛不留人 (literally “keep the island, rid of its people”) advocates mass atrocities against Taiwanese. Often accompanied by 武统 “unification through invasion,” 杀光台湾人”murder all TWese,” or 核平台湾 “nuke TW.”Between 2017-19, its frequency increased 470% on Twitter.[2]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvNYx2XkAEFA5I.jpg "留岛不留人 (literally “keep the island, rid of its people”) advocates mass atrocities against Taiwanese. Often accompanied by 武统 “unification through invasion,” 杀光台湾人”murder all TWese,” or 核平台湾 “nuke TW.”Between 2017-19, its frequency increased 470% on Twitter.[2]")
Between 2017-19, its frequency increased 470% on Twitter.
[2]
And it's accelerating. Up to April 15, there're 1,481 tweets in 2020 with the phrase, already 50% more than 953 tweets in all of 2019.
Monthly analysis shows correlation between some major political events & frequency of the phrase, e.g., Tsai Ing-wen electoral victories.
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![And it's accelerating. Up to April 15, there're 1,481 tweets in 2020 with the phrase, already 50% more than 953 tweets in all of 2019.Monthly analysis shows correlation between some major political events & frequency of the phrase, e.g., Tsai Ing-wen electoral victories.[3]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvNuUEXQAMiFRb.png "And it's accelerating. Up to April 15, there're 1,481 tweets in 2020 with the phrase, already 50% more than 953 tweets in all of 2019.Monthly analysis shows correlation between some major political events & frequency of the phrase, e.g., Tsai Ing-wen electoral victories.[3]")
Monthly analysis shows correlation between some major political events & frequency of the phrase, e.g., Tsai Ing-wen electoral victories.
[3]
Between June-Nov 2019, the phrase was used toward both Taiwan & HK, seemingly in response to the HK anti-extradition/democracy movement. Aside from this period, the phrase is primarily directed at Taiwan, including during the current 2020 explosion in its frequency.
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![Between June-Nov 2019, the phrase was used toward both Taiwan & HK, seemingly in response to the HK anti-extradition/democracy movement. Aside from this period, the phrase is primarily directed at Taiwan, including during the current 2020 explosion in its frequency.[4]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvOZf8XQAMmuVo.png "Between June-Nov 2019, the phrase was used toward both Taiwan & HK, seemingly in response to the HK anti-extradition/democracy movement. Aside from this period, the phrase is primarily directed at Taiwan, including during the current 2020 explosion in its frequency.[4]")
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Overall, the frequency on Twitter began gradually increasing after Tsai Ing-wen was elected in 2016. Frequency accelerated after Xi’s major Taiwan speech in Jan 2019. Since the 2020 Taiwan election & Tsai’s victory, the phrase is on track to far surpass 2019.
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![Overall, the frequency on Twitter began gradually increasing after Tsai Ing-wen was elected in 2016. Frequency accelerated after Xi’s major Taiwan speech in Jan 2019. Since the 2020 Taiwan election & Tsai’s victory, the phrase is on track to far surpass 2019.[5]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvPTN0XkAAwfyG.jpg "Overall, the frequency on Twitter began gradually increasing after Tsai Ing-wen was elected in 2016. Frequency accelerated after Xi’s major Taiwan speech in Jan 2019. Since the 2020 Taiwan election & Tsai’s victory, the phrase is on track to far surpass 2019.[5]")
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It’s unclear from my limited analysis how many users publishing this language are real/bots or potentially state-linked.
Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.
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![It’s unclear from my limited analysis how many users publishing this language are real/bots or potentially state-linked. Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.[6]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvPO-PXkAU_jqR.png "It’s unclear from my limited analysis how many users publishing this language are real/bots or potentially state-linked. Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.[6]")
![It’s unclear from my limited analysis how many users publishing this language are real/bots or potentially state-linked. Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.[6]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvPQr0X0AAlIyv.png "It’s unclear from my limited analysis how many users publishing this language are real/bots or potentially state-linked. Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.[6]")
![It’s unclear from my limited analysis how many users publishing this language are real/bots or potentially state-linked. Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.[6]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvPQsvWsAMPf9H.png "It’s unclear from my limited analysis how many users publishing this language are real/bots or potentially state-linked. Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.[6]")
![It’s unclear from my limited analysis how many users publishing this language are real/bots or potentially state-linked. Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.[6]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvPQtaWoAAR0wi.png "It’s unclear from my limited analysis how many users publishing this language are real/bots or potentially state-linked. Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.[6]")
Worth mentioning that at least 4 Chinese-language users have the phrase in their handle. 3 were created in March/April 2020, in line with the trend.
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Regardless of the role of the Chinese state in this trend, anyone who cares for Taiwanese people will find the normalization of this genocidal language deeply troubling.
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On methods:
Pretty rudimentary. I searched Twitter by month with the key phrase “留岛不留人”, recording # of results. Unfortunately, Twitter doesn’t return total # of results, so I had to manually count them. (Sadly, I’m not a programmer.)
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Pretty rudimentary. I searched Twitter by month with the key phrase “留岛不留人”, recording # of results. Unfortunately, Twitter doesn’t return total # of results, so I had to manually count them. (Sadly, I’m not a programmer.)
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Note: not every tweet containing the phrase is advocacy. Some mention it in reaction to extremists using it. While I’ve not done systematic text analysis, I was counting these manually, and the majority of tweets appear to be a form of advocacy, not reaction to advocacy.
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Preempting those who might try to minimize the severity of 留岛不留人, spare us. Plenty of forums, articles, & Tweets in Chinese indicate how extreme the language is (see below). You can even find some Chinese nationalists advocating others not to use it.
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![Preempting those who might try to minimize the severity of 留岛不留人, spare us. Plenty of forums, articles, & Tweets in Chinese indicate how extreme the language is (see below). You can even find some Chinese nationalists advocating others not to use it.[End]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVvP8kRWsAEeptw.jpg "Preempting those who might try to minimize the severity of 留岛不留人, spare us. Plenty of forums, articles, & Tweets in Chinese indicate how extreme the language is (see below). You can even find some Chinese nationalists advocating others not to use it.[End]")
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Some folks who might be interested in the thread above:
@WilliamYang120 @catielila @pybaubry @audreyt @heguisen @jessicacweiss @jessicadrun @JMichaelCole1 @lnachman32 @chenchenzh @wearytolove @MargaretKLewis @nathanattrill
@WilliamYang120 @catielila @pybaubry @audreyt @heguisen @jessicacweiss @jessicadrun @JMichaelCole1 @lnachman32 @chenchenzh @wearytolove @MargaretKLewis @nathanattrill
