A photograph of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) taking a deep bow before a statue of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) while presenting a yellow floral wreath at the Republic of China founder’s mausoleum in Nanjing during his 12-day visit to China from March 27 to April 7 was used in a propaganda video released on Thursday by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command.
The video titled China, We Cannot Lose Even One Inch of It (中國，一點都不能少) showed photos from the second Sino-Japanese War and the surrender of Japanese forces in China, as well as Ma’s visit in Nanjing and a large billboard in Xiamen, China, bearing the slogan “one country, two systems, unite China.”
Captions in the video said that “Chinese soldiers stand firm in protecting the blood and family that cannot be lost” as a map of Taiwan was displayed, implying that people in Taiwan and China have “the same roots,” while the narrator reads a poem about “uniting against a foreign enemy.”
The video was released shortly after China ended its three-day military exercises around Taiwan following a meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles the week before and on the same day that Beijing announced an investigation of Taiwan’s trade barriers on more than 2,400 Chinese products.
The timing of the video’s release and controversial remarks by Ma during his time in China have prompted criticism of the former president and his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), including accusations that he was a tool for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “united front” tactics and advocated Beijing’s “one China” principle.
Earlier this week, parents of students at Taipei Municipal Dunhua Elementary School were shocked to learn that a clip of the school’s choir singing a song conveying nostalgia for China had been screened in a Lunar New Year special aired by a Chinese state TV channel.
The choir were asked to perform We Sing the Same Song (我們同唱一首歌), which the Mainland Affairs Council has labeled a Chinese “united front” propaganda song. Three Taiwanese sang it in China Central Television’s Lunar New Year show last year, and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has said the song “expresses Taiwanese people’s nostalgia and recognition to ancestors, and the blood-is-thicker-than-water kinship of people on both sides of the Strait.”
The video of the choir sparked an outcry, with people asking why children were used for Chinese “united front” propaganda. The school said that it had merely arranged a cultural exchange and the video had been edited.
While Ma and the school said their intentions were to promote cultural exchanges, the two videos highlight that for the CCP, everything is part of its plan to infiltrate all sectors of Taiwanese society.
Leaving aside the possibility that Ma and the KMT are working with the CCP to some extent, local governments, schools and the public must raise their awareness about China’s “united front” tactics.
Chinese-language news reports in 2019 said that more than 3,000 Taiwanese students visited China each summer on Chinese government-funded camps, tours and forums touted as “cultural and academic exchanges.” As COVID-19 restrictions were eased and national borders reopened, the tactics resumed, such as when dozens of Kaohsiung borough wardens were invited to China in February.
Academics have warned that “united front” and cognitive warfare campaigns are expected to increase ahead of next year’s presidential and legislative elections. If people lack the political literacy and awareness to recognize them, they might become the unwitting tools of propagandists.
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