By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporterThe nation would fight hard against “GTB lunatics,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday in response to a Chinese official’s ridicule of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Wu yesterday on Twitter defended Tsai, saying that Taiwan is on the front lines of the fight for freedom and democracy. “We’ll keep fighting hard against state-level interference, infiltration, disinformation, military threats, international assaults, wumao, GTB lunatics & African swine fever,” he wrote. The term wumao refers to Internet users who are paid to support the Chinese government’s propaganda, while “GTB” is a romanized acronym for the office, which is pronounced guo tai ban in Mandarin. The Mainland Affairs Council on Wednesday said that the office’s ridicule and inappropriate remarks only show its rudeness and ignorance of how a democratic society functions.

Source: Taipei Times January 31, 2019 15:56 UTC