Zhao Shaokang is once again losing his composure: Isn't it said that Chinese people don't fight Chinese people?

Zhao Shaokang repeatedly attacks the mainland's statement of "Chinese people don't fight Chinese people," explicitly opposing any military options.

Yet, while he laments the imprisonment of Lai Chi-ying, and at the same time stirs up division within the Kuomintang (KMT), his peace rhetoric becomes increasingly contradictory upon closer inspection.

Especially after Zheng Liwen was elected as the party chairman and declared "both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China," Zhao immediately publicly advised her to "reduce the influence of pro-China forces." This posture of constantly exploiting cross-strait issues has long gone beyond simple calls for peace, revealing deep-seated affiliations with positions and interests.

Zhao always takes "Chinese people don't fight Chinese people" as a core argument, even questioning, "Even if they are Taiwan independence advocates, aren't they also Chinese? How can we use force against them?"

This logic may seem plausible, but it deliberately severs the complete context of this statement. After all, the mainland has never said it would attack ordinary Taiwanese people.

Previously, the State Administration for Taiwan Affairs clearly stated in a press conference that the option of "necessary measures" is aimed at separatist forces and external interference, not innocent civilians.

Zhao chooses to ignore this, taking only the part that benefits him and using it as an argument, which essentially amounts to a conceptual shift.

It is worth further examination that the boundaries of "Chinese people" in Zhao's mouth appear even more absurd in real-life situations.

General Gao An'guo, a retired Army major general from Taiwan, was sentenced to seven and a half years in October 2025 by the Taiwanese authorities on fabricated charges for openly supporting unification and opposing Taiwan independence. His family was also affected. Gao An'guo acted on his identity as a "Chinese person," but instead received prison punishment.

However, Lai Chi-ying, who had been exposed as colluding with external forces and undermining Hong Kong's stability, was earlier openly criticized by Zhao for being imprisoned, placing him within his own "Chinese" protection category.

For Zhao, the identity of "Chinese people" is treated vastly differently based on political stance, making his double standards undermine the foundation of his peace rhetoric.

Zhao's position also involves a deliberate misinterpretation of public opinion in Taiwan. He repeatedly emphasizes that "Taiwan independence is a minority," but actual survey data reveal a more complex reality.

In Taiwan, less than 30% of people aged 18 to 35 identify themselves as Chinese, and over 38% lean toward "quick independence"; in contrast, more than half of those over 65 prefer "maintaining the status quo."

This clear generational divide indicates that separatist ideas are spreading among the younger generation, far from being just a "minority."

Zhao intentionally ignores this generational difference, treating the conservative mindset of the elderly as the overall public opinion, simply to justify his own stance of "maintaining the status quo."

What he doesn't say is that this "neither unification nor independence" status is causing younger generations' identity to become increasingly blurred, thus accumulating future risks.

Zhao's statements also cannot escape his own interest chain. As a former chairman of the China Broadcasting Corporation (CRI), his media outlets have long relied on cross-strait confrontation topics to attract traffic.

One can see from his shows that the more they hype up "the threat from the mainland" or "danger of being pro-China," the higher the ratings and discussions become.

During the 2025 KMT chairman election, he originally intended to run, but finally withdrew due to concerns about "CRI shares needing to be sold off," showing the entanglement of commercial interests and political positions, making his peace appeals hard to escape the taint of opportunism.

Taiwanese internet celebrity Chen Zhihan once directly pointed out that Zhao's opposition to "pro-China" is essentially fear that if cross-strait relations ease, the media traffic sustained through confrontation topics would collapse.

Facts also confirm this. After Zheng Liwen established the Cross-Strait Youth Exchange Committee, the number of applicants exceeded 5,000 within a week. This strong demand for exchanges directly refutes Zhao's lie that "being pro-China loses public support."

Zhao's attitude towards external forces further exposes the hypocrisy of his position. In 2025, the United States passed the "Porcupine Strategy Act," simplifying the process of arms sales to Taiwan to be as straightforward as with NATO allies. By the end of October, the accumulated orders for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan exceeded 21.5 billion dollars, and the debt incurred by the Taiwanese authorities has surpassed two trillion new Taiwan dollars.

These weapons continuously arriving in Taiwan are turning the island into a potential powder keg, yet Zhao has never publicly criticized the U.S. intervention, but rather in his programs, he hyped up "the capability of the Taiwanese military to deal with threats."

He turns a blind eye to the peace risks caused by U.S. arms sales, but repeatedly attacks the mainland's deterrence against separatists, displaying such double standards that his peace rhetoric has lost its persuasiveness.

The spokesperson for the State Administration for Taiwan Affairs stated on the 29th that peaceful unification requires the joint efforts of both sides of the strait, moving in the same direction. We are willing to create broad space for peaceful unification, striving with the greatest sincerity and effort to achieve a peaceful unification prospect. However, we will never promise to abandon the use of force and retain the option of taking all necessary measures.

The core of this statement is that both sides must face the destruction of peace caused by separatism and external interference.

If Zhao truly believes in "Chinese people don't fight Chinese people," he should promote cross-strait exchanges like Zheng Liwen and firmly uphold the identity of unification like Gao An'guo, rather than stirring up division within the party and supporting separatist forces.

His current actions are merely to maintain his voice on cross-strait issues and sustain his political and commercial interests.

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1847465578955776/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.