Former National Basketball Association (NBA) star Dwight Howard has stirred a public outcry on Chinese social media as he calls Taiwan a country.

Reuters reported that the U.S. basketball star appears in a promotional video with the Taiwanese vice president, supporting a campaign for a small group of foreign tourists to spend the night at Taiwan's presidential palace.

Howard said in the video, "Hello everyone, I'm Dwight Howard, and since I have come to Taiwan, I have gained a whole new appreciation of this country." 

Taiwan is the most sensitive issue for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and often causes strong reactions from Beijing. 

The CCP claims Taiwan as its territory despite never having controlled it. Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that often threatens to reunite the self-ruled island with the mainland by force if necessary. 

After Howard's video was released, it quickly became viral on China's Weibo social media platform. The hashtag #HowardTaiwanindependence has been getting about 400 million views by Friday.

Howard last year joined the Taiwanese basketball team Taoyuan Leopards. He is the most well-known player to ever play in Taiwan's T1 League.  

During his career in the NBA, Howard has played for major teams, including Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets. He also played for the U.S. National basketball team and won the Olympic gold medal with the team in the 2008 Olympics.

The NBA games are very popular in China, and several such incidents have triggered controversy.

Another former NBA player, Enes Kanter Freedom, who played for Boston Celtics, is best known for his strong, outspoken voice against the CCP.

Kanter Freedom often supports the Free Tibet movement on his Twitter. In October 2021, Kanter Freedom criticized Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a "brutal dictator" for CCP's repressive policies in Tibet. The CCP stopped streaming all Boston Celtics games in China in retaliation.

In 2019, Chinese television stopped broadcasting Houston Rockets games when general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong.

The article originally appeared on Spotlight on China