Mainland Chinese drone user drops fliers in ‘anti-Taiwan independence protest’

A mainland Chinese man’s solo drone campaign against Taiwan has been praised by online nationalists for “showing the public’s support for unification”.

The unnamed man started flying drones over the closest Taiwanese outpost to the mainland dropping fliers that attacked independence a day after the People’s Liberation Army finished two days of drills in protest at the inauguration speech of the island’s new leader William Lai Ching-te.

The incident echoes the decades-long propaganda war between the two sides following the Communist victory in the civil war in 1949, which saw balloons carrying pamphlets and food being sent to both sides.

This time there has been no official endorsement from Beijing of the flights, but the mainland has strict rules on drone use and there has been no apparent intervention to stop the man’s activities.

In recent years there have been a string of incidents in which unidentified drones have flown over restricted waters, around Quemoy, also known as Kinmen, which is just a few kilometres off the coast of the Chinese mainland. Two years ago Taiwanese troops shot down a drone in the area.

The man behind the latest campaign has not disclosed his identity, but uses the online alias Twenty Years of Stargazing and says he lives in Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian province near to Quemoy.

He declined to speak to the Post, but earlier this week wrote an article for Guancha.cn, a site that is popular with Chinese nationalists, in which he said he wanted to project “mainland voices for unification and anti-independence” to protest against Lai’s inaugural speech last month.

He wrote that he felt the Taiwanese people are “family”, but the leaders of Lai’s Democratic Progress Party have been smearing the mainland and inciting hatred.

Beijing has repeatedly denounced Lai as a separatist and his inaugural speech, which described the island as “sovereign, independent nation”, was followed, three days later, by exercises that observers said were the biggest ever held near Taiwan and the closest to the island’s coast.

Last weekend a post on the WeChat account of the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command said the exercises by its land, navy, air force and missile forces were “punishment” for “Taiwan separatists” and a “severe warning” to outside forces intent on interference and provocation.

The latest drone flights were described by some Taiwanese media outlets as a “new harassment measure from the mainland”, while some members of the public have asked why the military did not respond or shoot down the drone. One online commentator said these incidents “make the Taiwanese troops seem incompetent”.

Shen Yi, a professor at Fudan University who advised the drone user on what to write on the fliers, said the flight was “simple patriotic behaviour”.

In a more detailed video the drone user posted on Weibo and video site Bilibili last Sunday, he said he had “dropped off Taiwanese troops some textbooks so they could learn a lesson”.

The video showed fliers that said “there’s one China and one Chinese nation across the Strait, Lai’s ‘Taiwan independence’ is a dead-end” and “refusing unification by force is doomed to fail”.

It also showed a drone that flew from Xiamen to Erdan, an island in the Quemoy chain before dropping a box apparently containing the fliers on a military base before returning to the mainland.

The drone user made similar flights over Erdan earlier this year, filming troops transporting ammunition and other supplies.

The Kinmen Defence Command said the latest flight was meant to incite outside attention but it “will not dance” to that tune.

Shen said the wording on the leaflets reflected the official mainland view and it was up to the Taiwanese public whether they wanted to believe them.

Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor, said Beijing sees no need to interfere with acts carried out with “good intensions”.

“If these are all personal interests and hobbies, then there’s no need for the government to interfere, that’s the core of the issue,” he said. “It does not matter what the Taiwan administration and military think. The users only have to consider Chinese law.

“If Taiwan is fully unified with the mainland, authorities will also set boundaries for where civilian drones can go, but because of the special status of the two sides, all areas controlled by Taiwan are not subject to any restrictions.”

The mainland Chinese authorities do not acknowledge or regulate drone flights of this type, and appear to have given them their tacit support.

In 2022 the foreign ministry said there was no reason to be surprised by “Chinese drones flying over Chinese land” after a civilian drone landed on Lieyu, another island in the Quemoy chain, with a message for Taiwanese troops and then declined to elaborate a few days later when a drone was shot down.

The flights have been categorised by some observers as a “grey zone” tactic in which indirect measures are used to intimidate Taiwan without the use of physical force.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including itsmain international supporter the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take it by force and is committed to providing the island with arms to defend itself.

Additional reporting by Phoebe Zhang