Photo: A screenshot from media reports

 TV commentator Wang Rui-de on the island of Taiwan was mocked by netizens on both sides of the Straits after he claimed that "the missiles from the mainland would not be able to hit eastern Taiwan as the Earth is round." 

Wang made the remarks during a TV program "Taiwan Front Line" on June 3 when making comments on the recent visits of warplanes of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) to the vicinity of Taiwan amid the surprising visit of a US senator to the island as well as the dual carrier drills held by the US Navy near the region, according to guancha.cn. 

The PLA's warplanes mainly move in two directions to the island, the southwest direction and the southeast direction, where there are US submarines. The PLA sent anti-submarine warplanes to capture US' submarines in these places, Wang claimed, according to a video circulating on social media platforms.

He then noted that "many people do not know the mainland has arranged thousands of missiles targeting the island, but these missiles would not be able to hit the east of the island as the Earth is round."

But as long as their warplanes approached the southeast airspace of the island, they could face and attack the area directly, Wang added. 

Wang's speech was mocked by netizens on social media platforms on both sides of the Taiwan Straits on Tuesday. The trending topic "Taiwan program claims mainland missile could not hit eastern Taiwan as the Earth is round" has been viewed more than 150 million times as of Tuesday morning.

"You are right, the mainland's missiles would not hit the island, as the mainland even does not need to use missile to attack the island, rocket gun is enough, using missiles would be a waste of money," a netizen commented on China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo.

"At least you know the Earth is round, 30 percent of US people still do not believe it," said another Weibo user. 

Netizens also found that Wang has previously made other ridiculous comments on TV shows. For example, in September 2020 he said the J-10 and J-11 warplanes on the Shandong, China's first domestically built aircraft carrier, are just models instead of real planes. In January 2021, he said that the mainland uses paper to 3D print rice as the mainland was witnessing poor harvests.   

"Not only netizens in the mainland are surprised by these speeches, but netizens on the island could not believe they [TV commentators like Wang] said so. But, in fact, they all know the fact and the truth, they just say so to delude those who could not tell right from wrong," a user commented on Facebook.

Wang is not the first TV commentator on the island to be mocked by netizens for absurd comments. 

In August 2019, Huang Shi-cong, an economist in the island of Taiwan, said on a talk show program "Crucial Moment" that the share prices of Fuling Zhacai, a famous Chinese zhacai maker in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, showed that mainland people were too poor to eat zhacai, or pickled vegetables.

Fuling Zhacai then announced on Weibo that they had delivered a box of zhacai to the program, saying that "we are not only able to afford zhacai, but also to treat you all in the program with zhacai."

Later in the same month, some analysts on the island said in another program that the price increase of Wuliangye, a well-known Chinese liquor, indicates that mainland residents are drowning their sorrows amid economic downturn. 

In 2011, Gao Zhi-bin, a scholar in Taiwan, said that tea-boiled eggs, at about 2.5 yuan a pop, are luxury food and most mainland people could not afford them. 

Global Times