As part of its “united front” tactics, China has been grooming young Taiwanese to become Internet celebrities or Internet program hosts, a source said on condition of anonymity.
Over the past year, about 1,000 Taiwanese living in China have participated in training programs and competitions for show hosts held in several cities, including Xiamen, Wenzhou and Hangzhou, the source said on Saturday.
“Beijing is taking advantage of the openness of the Internet to spread propaganda about acceptance of China, and about ‘national security,’” the source said, adding that Taiwan’s national security officials are racing to fix the problem.
Chinese infiltration of social media in Taiwan gained momentum in 2019, when it purchased several Taiwanese Facebook pages, and over the past two years it has been employing Taiwanese Internet celebrities to help spread propaganda, the source said.
One show host competition held in Xiamen in December last year — sponsored by the city and China’s Fujian Provincial Government — was part of a five-month program that started in August, and involved training courses and a summer camp, the source said.
A separate training program was held in Wenzhou in December by the city’s Chinese government-run Taiwanese entrepreneurship and employment center, they said.
The government of Zhejiang Province, where Wenzhou is located, has said that it would offer training to 1,200 young Taiwanese, including “at least 30 to host e-commerce” platforms, the source said.
The Hangzhou Taiwan Compatriots-Invested Enterprises Association last year started a three-year show host training program for 1,000 young Taiwanese, they said.
“Beijing has been trying to lure young Taiwanese to China for years now. Since the [COVID-19] pandemic put a halt to that, it has been expanding its Internet influence campaign,” the source said.
China’s motivation to train Internet celebrities and show hosts probably emerged after it ran into legal trouble trying to hire Taiwanese Internet celebrities, they said.
“Basically, Beijing believes that by employing young Taiwanese to spread its propaganda, other Taiwanese will listen,” the source added.
The Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法), which was passed last year, has a very limited scope, and does not give authorities power to counter Chinese infiltration through the use of sensitive technology or Taiwanese media, the source said.
“Beijing knows the Internet is open, and Taiwan has no clear laws to counter Chinese infiltration through the Internet,” the source said. “Perhaps this is an area that could be regulated by a [proposed] ministry of digital development.”
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
RSS