China has been creating fake social media accounts to interfere with the Nov. 24 elections as practice for manipulating the 2020 elections to elect candidates favorable toward Beijing, a National Security Bureau source said on Saturday.
China’s fake news is largely centered on issues related to Taiwan’s defense, cross-strait relations and the policies of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration, and generally gets published first by Chinese outlets such as the Global Times, Straits Today (今日海峽) and Taihai Net (台海網), the source said.
The content is then edited by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) cyberwarfare division or the 50 Cent Army — Internet users paid to support Beijing’s propaganda online — and reposted to PTT — Taiwan’s largest online bulletin board system — the Line messaging app, YouTube and other social media platforms, the source said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Internet
There are a growing number of Chinese accounts aimed at Taiwan on YouTube, such as Jianghu Baixiaosheng (江湖百曉生) and Touhao Zhanjiang (頭號戰將), which both have nearly 30,000 Taiwanese followers, the source said.
These accounts have each published nearly 1,000 videos in the six months they have been active, and the content is largely commentary critical of Tsai and US President Donald Trump sourced from the Global Times, the source added.
Some of the videos on Jianghu Baixiaosheng, including one advocating a PLA takeover of Taiwan, have been shared on Facebook by Taiwanese users, the source said.
China’s information warfare efforts are an evolution of a PLA unit that was established at the end of 2015 to conduct intelligence gathering, attacks on servers and networks, cognitive hacking and psychological warfare, the source said, adding that the branch today has an estimated 300,000 personnel.
Taiwan has long been a testing ground for Chinese cyberattacks, and last year the bureau intercepted an average of 100,000 online attacks from China per month, the source said.
China’s cyberwarfare specialists are familiar with social issues in Taiwan and inject divisive commentary into discussions on controversial topics in an attempt to create social strife, the source said, citing the fake story about Chinese consulate officials helping Chinese passengers stranded at Osaka’s Kansai International Airport following Typhoon Jebi.
Bureau Director-General Peng Sheng-chu (彭勝竹) on Thursday told a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee that Beijing and the PLA were behind a propaganda campaign to interfere with the nation’s democratic elections by creating disinformation and fake news targeting Taiwanese media outlets, radio and television programs and Web sites, Peng said.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) on Friday told an inter-ministerial meeting at the Executive Yuan that this month’s elections were being undermined because of China’s spread of disinformation, financial support of certain candidates and sponsoring of television and radio programs, as well as cyberattacks.
‘DEMOCRATIC FISH’: Soichiro Hayashi said he wants to return Taiwan’s kindness after it helped with relief efforts after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami Japanese fish farmers are ready to help Taiwan after China banned Taiwanese grouper imports, the Sankei Shimbun reported yesterday. The Chinese General Administration of Customs suspended imports of the fish on Monday last week, citing prohibited chemicals and excessive levels of oxytetracycline allegedly found in grouper imports since December last year. Soichiro Hayashi, president of the Hayashi Trout Farm in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture, is leading the push for Taiwanese grouper imports, the newspaper said. His call has caught the attention of several large sushi chains, the report said. Hayashi, who is the Fukushima branch head of the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association in Japan,
‘TROJAN HORSE’ SCHEME: The comment that a bridge would allow China’s PLA to easily launch an attack shows ‘a lack of backbone,’ Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said Critics accused Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of being oblivious to national security concerns after he proposed constructing a bridge to link Kinmen and China’s Xiamen (廈門). Ko, who is also the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman, made the proposal when presiding over the opening ceremony of the party’s office in Kinmen on Saturday. He said the bridge could solve Kinmen’s population, electricity and garbage problems, as well as serve as a shortcut for leaving or entering Taiwan without traveling via Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport). He also proposed building a hospital in Kinmen to attract people who are seeking medical treatment in
OVER THE HUMP: In a seven-day period ending on Wednesday, the nation reported 366,628 new cases, down 19 percent from the 451,358 reported in the previous week The nation might further open up to more arrivals in the next two months, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 48,283 new local COVID-19 cases, down from more than 50,000 in the previous few days. Taiwan on Wednesday last week introduced a plan to allow up to 25,000 arrivals per week as part of efforts to gradually reopen borders, which includes reducing mandatory quarantines for inbound travelers from seven to three days, followed by four days in “self-initiated epidemic prevention.” The quota covers inbound Taiwanese arrivals, businesspeople and migrant workers. Former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday said
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it is monitoring Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ship movements near Taiwan, after the Japanese Ministry of Defense disclosed that Chinese vessels made a rare voyage between Yilan County and Japan’s Yonaguni. The Japanese ministry on Wednesday said that two Chinese navy ships on Tuesday diverted from their usual route of entering the Pacific Ocean via the Miyako Strait and for the first time traveled there between Yilan and Yonaguni. The Japan Self-Defense Forces said that it picked up the presence of China’s Type-056A Jiangdao-class corvette 220km north of Yonaguni at 9am on Tuesday. The
RSS