Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) on Tuesday called on democracies to cooperate on countering China’s cognitive warfare efforts.
Speaking at a policy forum held by Taipei-based think tank Doublethink Lab and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Wu said that China was “attempting to create social division and mistrust to undermine [Taiwan’s] democratic system.”
Shiori Kanno, a former parliamentary member of the Japanese Diet, also spoke at the event, saying that the issue of Taiwan’s security had been receiving greater attention in Japan and argued that a conflict in the Taiwan Strait would impact Japan’s economy.
Philippine Representative Adrian Amatong also expressed concern, saying it was “crucial for international partners to unite and develop solutions to avoid an escalation in the region.”
This follows similar comments Wu made during a meeting with University of Tokyo professor Yasuhiro Matsuda on Sept. 11, when Matsuda led a delegation of researchers to Taipei. Wu told Matsuda that Taiwan was committed to cooperating with Japan and other like-minded countries to address Chinese aggression in the region. Cognitive warfare was one of the items discussed in the meeting.
“The Chinese government and military writings say cognitive operations aim to ‘capture the mind’ of one’s foes, shaping an adversary’s thoughts and perceptions and consequently their decisions and actions,” US political scientist Peter Singer wrote in an article published on Oct. 17 by Defense One.
“Unlike US defense documents and strategic thinkers, the People’s Liberation Army puts cognitive warfare on par with the other domains of warfare like air, sea and space, and believes it key to victory — particularly victory without war,” he wrote.
China actively uses this cognitive warfare to influence the outcome of elections in the US and Taiwan, and to manipulate public opinion on key social issues with the aim of sowing public discontent in democracies including Taiwan, the US and Japan.
This was seen most recently following a news report about government plans to introduce migrant workers from India to help ease Taiwan’s labor woes. China allegedly used thousands of fake social media accounts to spam posts about the news with racist comments, the Central News Agency reported, adding that fake Chinese accounts also spammed Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor’s Facebook page, demanding information about the plans.
China is believed to be using fake news to stoke fear among Taiwanese voters about possible war if the Democratic Progressive Party is re-elected in next month’s general election, a narrative that some opposition candidates have aped.
However, Taiwan’s elections are not the only target on China’s radar. Reuters reported on Sept. 7 that China is targeting US voters with AI.
“Microsoft researchers said... they found what they believe is a network of fake, Chinese-controlled social media accounts seeking to influence US voters by using artificial intelligence” such as by mimicing US voters, it said.
China has also allegedly interfered in Canada’s federal elections in 2019 and 2021, and a researcher with alleged links to senior UK Conservative Party politicians was arrested in September on suspicion of spying for China. There are likely countless other examples of Chinese interference in Western democracies.
Wu described Taiwan as “a testing ground for China’s cognitive warfare,” and for this reason, Taiwan would ideally serve as a base of operations for joint efforts to counter Chinese interference and aggression.
The government should hold talks with senior representatives of other democracies on the possibility of an alliance to combat Chinese cognitive warfare and espionage. Democracies would be stronger together.
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