The draft foreign influence transparency act and an amendment to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例修正草案), jointly promoted by the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Democratic Progressive Party, have passed the first reading in the current session at the legislature. One of the objectives of the bills is to curb China’s “grand external propaganda” aimed at influencing and undermining Taiwan’s democracy.
The “grand external propaganda,” also known as “China’s grand strategy for external propaganda,” was initiated during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, when the torch relay was met with protests in many of the countries it passed through as the international community expressed support and sympathy for the Tibetan people who went to the extremes of self-immolation in protest against Chinese oppression.
To improve its negative image in the international community, China announced in January 2009 that it would invest 540 billion yuan (US$76.42 billion at the current exchange rate) in the promotion of the “official Chinese opinion” by setting up television stations and buying media outlets around the world, or by collaborating with willing international media outlets.
In August 2013, soon after he took office, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a speech at the National Conference on Ideological Advocacy Work in China that “we must work meticulously to do good external propaganda, innovate external propaganda methods ... and tell the Chinese story well and spread the Chinese voice well.” What this means is using big money to win the right to set the agenda and brainwash people around the world.
In contrast, pro-Chinese media outlets here in Taiwan have long been allowed to disseminate the official views of Chinese government, leading many Taiwanese to interpret international affairs in the same way China does.
Take the US-China trade dispute, for example: Many Taiwanese believe that China is winning the trade war, not to mention that many people simply do not know that the trade dispute has led to sharp decline of the Chinese economy.
Based on this understanding, a record number of Taiwanese students were sent to China by their parents to attend college last year. The unemployment rate among Chinese university graduates is a state secret in China, but according to data gathered secretly by many scholars, it is as high as 40 percent.
Still, influenced by the propaganda of pro-Chinese media here in Taiwan, Taiwanese parents think that the future of Taiwan’s younger generation lies in China.
These examples show that some Taiwanese have been brainwashed by the pro-unification media and that they, without even being aware of it, have gradually come to view the world through the filter of the Chinese government. Is the China presented in the “grand external propaganda” the real China? It is time that Taiwanese start thinking clearly about this.
Wu Cheng-yin is a software engineer and a member of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not