Taiwan President-Elect Tsai's Facebook Flooded With Posts Demanding Island’s Return To China

The Facebook page of Taiwan's president-elect Tsai Ing-wen was flooded with thousands of posts demanding that the island be brought under Chinese control. By Thursday morning, more than 40,000 people had left such comments.

Tsai and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won presidential and parliamentary elections by a landslide Saturday. Beijing, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must one day be brought back under China’s control, is concerned that Tsai may push for the island's formal independence.

"The greatness of this country lies in how every single person can exercise their rights" Tsai posted on Facebook, responding to the campaign. Her party also said that they "respected" those who exercised freedom of speech.

Many of the posts on Tsai’s Facebook page were in simplified Chinese characters used on the mainland rather than the traditional form of text used in Taiwan.

Facebook is blocked in China, though technologically savvy users often circumvent the restrictions, BBC reported.

This is not the first time Tsai has received several Facebook posts from across the Taiwan Strait.

"I hope this rare new experience can let the 'new friend' see a more complete democracy, freedom and pluralism of Taiwan," she wrote during a similar event in November.