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Taiwanese singer Hebe Tien has been slammed as pro-Taiwanese independence and a supporter of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by Chinese netizens after posting photos of herself eating spaghetti.
The snaps were posted to her Instagram Stories on Aug. 2, and have since been deleted after the backlash.
The situation comes at a particularly sensitive time -- Pelosi landed in Taiwan on the night of Aug. 2 despite China threatening to take “firm and strong measures” if she did so.
Connecting the dots
According to Chinese social media users who are in an uproar over Tien's picture, this is the link between pasta and Tien's political stance: she called the noodles "Italian noodles" (義大利麵) -- which is the correct term in Mandarin for spaghetti.
Pelosi is of Italian descent.
Therefore, they are convinced that Tien was showing her support for Pelosi.
Photo from Hebe Tien's Instagram
Chinese netizens upset
Chinese netizens have not reacted well to Tien's food choice, and her latest Weibo post has amassed over 60,000 comments -- significantly higher than the 2,000 or so comments she usually gets per update -- since it was posted 14 hours ago.
Many commenters asked her to "explain herself", and at least one person said that they have "wasted the years liking her".
Screenshot from Weibo
The innocuous picture has evidently created an uproar in Chinese social media, judging from the sheer number of views -- 2.33 million times as of Wednesday afternoon -- the hashtag "Hebe is pro-Taiwanese independence" has received on Weibo in the past 24 hours.
Screenshot from Weibo
Tien has not publicly addressed the situation at press time.
Read more:
Top photos from Hebe Tien's Instagram & Nancy Pelosi's Twitter