Silence is golden.

A spokeswoman for Chinese diplomacy learned the hard way on Monday.

She is the subject of an avalanche of mockery online, for a tweet in which she justifies Taiwan's belonging to China… by the number of Chinese restaurants on the island.

"Baidu Maps [one of China's leading map apps] shows that there are 38 Shandong (Chinese province cuisine) restaurants and 67 Shanxi (Province) noodle restaurants in Taipei," said wrote Hua Chunying on Sunday on Twitter, a social network blocked in China.

“The taste buds don't lie.

#Taiwan has always been part of China.

The long-lost child will eventually return home, ”said the spokesperson, well known to the general public in her country, in English.

Baidu Maps show that there are 38 Shandong dumpling restaurants and 67 Shanxi noodle restaurants in Taipei.

Palates don't cheat.

#Taiwan has always been a part of China.

The long lost child will eventually return home.

pic.twitter.com/p50RXund9T

— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) August 7, 2022

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To assert China's sovereignty over Taiwan

China considers Taiwan, an island with a population of around 23 million, to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the civil war. Chinese (1949).

Hua Chunying's argument for asserting China's sovereignty over Taiwan sparked laughter from many foreign netizens.

“There are more than 100 ramen (noodle) restaurants in Taipei, so Taiwan is definitely part of Japan,” one of them quipped on Twitter, in response to the spokesperson's tweet.

“Google Maps shows that there are 17 McDonald's, 18 KFC, 19 Burger King and 19 Starbucks in Beijing.

The taste buds don't lie.

#China has always been part of America, ”wrote another ironically, using the same wording as the diplomat.

Diplomats not always very diplomatic

Hua Chunying, known for her sometimes acerbic and not always diplomatic remarks, is very active on Twitter.

Like her, many Chinese diplomats have invested in the blue bird social network in recent years to defend, sometimes vehemently and controversially, the position of their government.

One of the figures of this generation of uninhibited diplomats is Zhao Lijian, another spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the start of the pandemic, he notably caused a lively controversy by suggesting that American military athletes may have brought Covid-19 to China during a sports competition.

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