A spokesperson from the Mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office has said that young people -- either side of the Taiwan Strait -- should increase their exchanges and enhance inter-communication.
He was responding to an unusual campaign, where Mainland netizens -- most of them young people -- flooded the Facebook page of Taiwan's newly-elected leader Tsai Ing-wen's and other media with messages of solidarity and patriotism. The campaign has been dubbed as the "Expedition on Facebook".
The spokesperson said the Mainland supports these frequent cross-Strait exchanges, as they give these young people a better understanding of each other's situation, as well as cross-Strait relations.
Let's take a brief review at what this "Expedition on Facebook" is essentially all about.
Starting at 7 pm on January 20, comments and stickers from mainland netizens began to flood Taiwan's newly-elected leader Tsai Ing-wen's Facebook page and the pages of Taiwan-based SET News and Apple Daily.
The volume of the campaign forced Tsai and SET News to shut off the comment function on their accounts.
The online crusade was a counterstrike after Taiwan netizens flooded mainland actor Lin Gengxin's Facebook page with comments earlier.
Lin implied in a post on his Sina Weibo account that Taiwan pop singer Chou Tzu-yu's apology for waving the island's flag on a TV show lacked sincerity.
This is the latest episode in a series of clashes between netizens across the Straits since the beginning of Taiwan's general elections.
After Tsai was elected, mainland Web users have repeatedly clashed with their Taiwanese counterparts on Facebook. Most of those involved are believed to be from the post-1990s generation.
The crusade was launched by members of the forum Di Ba, an online community run by Chinese Internet giant Baidu. It was spontaneous, and had the feeling of an online carnival. But it has sparked widely divided opinions on the mainland.
Some people argue that the Facebook campaign has tarnished the mainland's image and added to the feelings of estrangement across the Straits.
Others believe that the online campaign reflects how mainland youth perceive the Taiwan question and China as a country. They also say there is no need for mainland authorities to be overly concerned about the online clashes.
