Following US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, China has not only launched military exercises to intimidate the nation, but also intensified its information warfare activities. The government should therefore not only strengthen its national defense capabilities, but also boost its information warfare prevention efforts.
First, it should close information security loopholes in electronic communications equipment. During Pelosi’s visit, video screens in 7-Eleven convenience stores and railway stations were hacked to display anti-Pelosi messages. Investigations revealed that the advertising media firms that set up the screens used Chinese software, which likely were embedded with backdoor programs to make the equipment easily hackable.
The government should inspect equipment connected to computer networks — display screens, signage, speed cameras, intersection surveillance cameras and camera drones — and immediately replace equipment found to incorporate Chinese products. Information security drills should also be held for government and private institutions to pre-emptively discover and address information security loopholes, and block communist China from penetrating any breaches.
Second, the government should increase efforts to correct and counter disinformation.
A report titled Varieties of Democracy, which was last year published by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, named Taiwan as the country suffering the most severe cross-border attacks using false information.
During Pelosi’s visit, false reports such as “Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport has been attacked by missiles and Taiwan’s air defenses failed to intercept them,” and “Sukhoi Su-35 jet fighters are crossing the Taiwan Strait” were circulating on the Internet. The government should closely monitor such messages and promptly dispel any rumors to stop disinformation from spreading and causing panic.
Faced with China’s manipulation of information and dissemination of false information, the government should propose countermeasures.
It should follow the example of the “Great Translation Movement,” which has emerged in response to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This movement translates pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian, anti-US and anti-Japanese statements that circulate on the Chinese Internet into other languages to expose them to the international community, unmasking the pretense of China’s “neutrality” in the Russia-Ukraine war.
The government should recruit speakers of English, Japanese, French and other foreign languages to translate anti-Taiwan messages originating in China, whether they come from official Chinese Communist Party or Chinese government sources, or from “Little Pink” online nationalists, and make them known to the international community to counter China’s information manipulation and external propaganda.
Unlike conventional warfare, information warfare does not distinguish between peacetime and wartime.
The government should move quickly to bolster its defense and response mechanisms in the face of network infiltration and disinformation attacks. Only if it does so can Taiwan win this “war without bullets.”
Wang Yu-pei is a civil servant.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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