Beijing is leveraging the ancestral village of Taiwan's leader William Lai Ching-te in Fujian to promote closer cross-strait ties. The initiative focuses on kinship and religious connections to influence messaging towards the island. This strategy highlights China's efforts to foster unity through cultural links, as seen with a recent visit by a Taiwanese YouTuber.

As the closest mainland Chinese province to Taiwan, Fujian is a key site for Beijing’s messaging towards the island. In the second of a two-part series, Xinlu Liang looks at how the ancestral home village of William Lai Ching-te has become a focus for efforts to promote closer ties based on kinship and religion. The village of Xintian in Fujian province is usually a quiet rural backwater but that changed in November when popular Taiwanese YouTuber and bodybuilder Holger Chen Chih-han descended.....