Relations between China and Taiwan are as thorny as ever, which has made itself felt in a variety of fields and industries.

The entertainment industry is no exception.

There's Katy Perry, who has been banned indefinitely from entering China for wearing the flag of Taiwan at a concert in Taipei in 2015.

And there was outrage on mainland China when Madonna displayed the Taiwan flag on stage during her performance in 2016.

More recently, there was the case of Taiwanese actress Vivian Sung, who apologised to Chinese netizens on Weibo on Aug. 6, 2018, after fury erupted in the mainland over an interview she did in 2015 where said Taiwan was her favourite country.

Now, another celebrity has found herself at the centre of controversy for her alleged stance on the issue -- Jay Chou's Taiwanese-Australian wife, Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌).

Catching flak for a sentence she said five years ago

On Aug. 4, Chinese nationalist netizen Chen Chih-chiang from the Taiwanese political party China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), wrote a widely-shared post on Weibo accusing Quinlivan of supporting Taiwan's independence.

In his post, Chen shared screenshots of an interview Quinlivan did in 2013 while visiting relatives in Australia, taking umbrage with subtitles of her comments, which stated, "as a citizen of Taiwan and Australia, I can make progress in advancing (relations between Taiwan and Australia)."

Chen took her statement to imply that she is in support of Taiwan's independence because she referred to herself as a citizen of Taiwan and that there are ties between Taiwan and Australia on a state basis.

Chen subsequently wrote, "First of all, you, Jay Chou, are a Chinese person, but does your woman Quinlivan need to be taught a good lesson?".

The post ended by requesting for the photos to be sent to Chou's Weibo account.

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Quinlivan dismisses Chen's claim entirely

In response to Chen, Quinlivan's agent released a statement saying that Quinlivan does not understand the question and has no interest in politics.

The statement further added that Quinlivan is only focused on her work and her family.

What is the ​China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP)?

The CUPP is a pro-China Taiwanese political party which backs unification between Taiwan and China and has a reputation for using violence against Taiwan's pro-independence groups.

It was founded in 2005 by "White Wolf" Chang An-Le, a former triad gangster who was on the run from 1996 to 2013 from the Taiwanese police for drug-trafficking charges.

On his return, he was briefly arrested, but was released shortly after on a bail of NT$1,000,000 (S$44,500).

Chang was once a prominent member in one of Taiwan's largest triads, the Bamboo Union -- an organised crime syndicate known to be involved in profit and politics.

Taiwanese lawmakers suspect that the party receives funding from the Chinese Community Party (CCP) itself for its operations and activities.

While Chang denies that he follows orders from Chinese officials or receives funding for the CUPP from Communist party-controlled groups, he confirms that he has frequent dealings and meetings with China officials in Shenzhen, where he mostly lived as a fugitive.

Top image from Jay Chou's Instagram