The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has its chairperson election tomorrow. Although the party has long positioned itself as “China friendly,” the election is overshadowed by “an overwhelming wave of Chinese intervention.”
The six candidates vying for the chair are former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), former lawmaker Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文), Legislator Luo Chih-chiang (羅智強), Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), former National Assembly representative Tsai Chih-hong (蔡志弘) and former Changhua County comissioner Zhuo Bo-yuan (卓伯源).
While Cheng and Hau are front-runners in different surveys, Hau has complained of an online defamation campaign against him coming from accounts with foreign IP addresses, including a fabricated video showing Hau kissing a Taipei city councilor in public.
Former Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) alleged that a significant number of the Web accounts attacking Hau are based in China, and using artificial intelligence (AI) this adroitly to fabricate fake images and the sheer quantity of “fake news” has displayed capabilities beyond an individual Internet user.
According to Jaw and a preliminary investigation by the National Security Bureau, in the past month, there were more than 1,200 video clips about the KMT election being released on Chinese TikTok (Douyin) and YouTube, most of which criticize Hau, but praise Cheng, who has frequently echoed China’s “one China principle,” vowed to “make all Taiwanese proud to be ‘Chinese,’” and is widely seen as more China-leaning.
China has a long history of interference in other countries’ political affairs and elections in support of its geopolitical objectives, targeting Taiwan and other democratic countries to support candidates most in line with the ambitious authoritarian’s interests. The US, Canada, South Korea, the Philippines and several European countries all have given evidence accusing China of interfering in elections.
During Taiwan’s presidential election last year, the National Security Bureau recorded at least 115 cases of Chinese interference operations, including sponsoring specific groups’ electioneering and trips to China for vote-buying purposes, as well as recruiting online influencers to build support for pro-China candidates, while stigmatizing the government and ruling party to accelerate social fracturing.
Ironically, though the KMT has long been identified as a China-leaning party, it cannot avoid China’s devious interference and manipulation in its elections. These incidents have been a warning that Beijing’s political interventions and interference not only target the ruling government and party, but now extend to the opposition.
KMT politicians have repeatedly hindered legislation to counter Beijing’s hostile cognitive warfare activities, “gray zone” tactics and political infiltrations. The party even proposed legislation to amend or abolish the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) after KMT dignitaries, such as former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?), took trips to China.
Now the party has to eat the bitter fruit. Jaw and other KMT heavyweights have called on Beijing to stop meddling in KMT elections, and declared a national security incident that should be contained.
No matter who wins the KMT election, China’s political infiltration and manipulations targeting Taiwanese political parties are going to continue.
To counter hostile foreign interventions and attacks is a substantial challenge and would take lots of effort, such as cybersecurity and AI technology upgrades, as well as legislative amendments and enforcement, including the National Security Act (國家安全法), Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) and Cyber Security Management Act (資通安全管理法). Most importantly, all political parties should work together to defend national security and against external threats.
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