China's social media users were threatening war over Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Now they're talking about sand.

Chinese social media users made threats of war as rumors of Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan began to build.

The tamer reality of Beijing's response has given way to a shift in rhetoric on Weibo where nationalist users have now rallied behind their country's ban on sand exports to Taiwan.

On Tuesday, Weibo's most well-liked posts and comments talked openly of shooting down Pelosi's plane and Smashing all incoming enemies.

After Pelosi's plane left Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for Taiwan on Tuesday, Weibo users began to think that the US and Taiwan would initiate a provocation that would prompt a response from China. One comment said "Tomorrow's hot search: Taiwanese people line up for Chinese IDs."

In a post that received over 100,000 likes, a user wrote that they were looking forward to seeing the "reunification of China", "death of Pelosi", and "the liberation of Taiwan" posts on Weibo.

There were reports that the US was moving warships near the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese army posted a picture of its air force, navy, and ground forces.

Pelosi arrived at the Songshan Airport in Taiwan on Tuesday evening and there were no rumors about a war. A ban on food imports from Taiwan was announced by China.

Talk of sand goes viral

The war fervor on the site waned overnight, with death threats against Pelosi nowhere to be found on top pages.

The platform is subject to intensive censorship from Chinese authorities, but it appears that support for China's counter-measures has increased on the site.

Yesterday, the People's Liberation Army didn't do anything. I believe it was the wisdom of the country. The ultimate goal of resolving the Taiwan issue is to unite Taiwan. A post with 60,000 likes said to instead shoot down Pelosi's plane.

Natural sand exports to Taiwan have become the focus of Weibo users, despite Beijing's vow to stop.

Natural sand is often used in the creation of concrete and asphalt, and is also used in the manufacturing of chips.

The announcement was a small part of a larger array of sanctions against Taiwan, but that hasn't stopped the topic from surging to more than 1.2 billion views in six hours.

The idea that the sand ban is the beginning of a series of blows to Taiwan is a popular one on Weibo.

A popular comment said to "step by step, believe in the motherland."

The ban of sand exports to Taiwan is the first wave of action. There will be a series of punches.

A total of 220 million views were received by explainers of the "What is natural sand?" meme.

In 2007, Beijing stopped exporting sand to Taiwan due to environmental concerns. It resumed exports the next year. According to Chinese official data, the majority of Taiwan's sand came from China.

Dozens of popular Weibo posts cite the 2007 report as evidence that Taiwan's construction industry would come to a halt.

Taiwan has sought to increase local production of natural sand since it became aware of this.

This week's ban on sand imports from China will have a limited impact on Taiwan's economy, according to the Mining Bureau.