Senior Chinese leaders held a meeting earlier this month to “coordinate” government efforts to sway next year’s elections in Taiwan, according to intelligence gathered by Taipei.
Taiwanese officials said that Beijing is trying to nudge voters toward candidates who seek closer China ties in the Jan. 13 presidential and legislative elections.
The meeting in Beijing was headed by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Huning (王滬寧), who is also deputy head of Beijing’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), several Taiwanese security officials who discussed the matter with reporters said.
Photo: AFP
Senior personnel from agencies including the CCP’s Publicity Department, the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) attended, the officials said, citing intelligence gathered.
Those officials requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The TAO did not respond to a request for comment. When commenting on the elections, it has said it respects Taiwan’s “social systems.”
The other Chinese government departments did not respond to requests for comment. The Chinese Ministry of State Security has no publicly available contact details.
The meeting focused on “ensuring the effectiveness and coordination of various work on the Taiwan elections,” according to an internal Taiwanese memo summing up its intelligence on the Chinese meeting.
The meeting concluded that agencies should “consolidate” their work on Taiwan, with the Publicity Department and a psychological warfare unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, called “Base 311,” running influence campaigns to sway public opinion via news firms and social media, the memo said.
The TAO and the Chinese United Front Work Department were tasked with developing outreach programs that included exchange activities with Taiwanese politicians and discounted air tickets for Taiwanese living in China to fly home to vote, it added.
China would continue to “play up the narrative of a ‘choice between peace and war,’” which posits that if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) stays in power, a war with China is likely, the memo said.
Beijing has repeatedly called the DPP dangerous separatists and urged Taiwanese to make the “right choice.”
The DPP’s presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), is leading in the polls.
The government is on high alert for Chinese attempts to interfere in the elections by illicitly funding Beijing-friendly candidates using communications apps, group tours or misinformation campaigns, internal security reports show.
Beijing has also sponsored cut-price trips to China for hundreds of local politicians ahead of the elections, Reuters has reported, citing sources and documents.
“They are coordinating their work on Taiwan in the final days to the elections,” said one of the sources, a senior official familiar with Taiwan’s security planning. “They want the best outcome possible.”
In the meeting, Beijing also concluded that it must “adjust the pace” of its campaigns, that senior official said, pointing to negative reactions in Taiwan after recent government scrutiny over the cut-price trips, as well as comments on Chinese state television, which has called the DPP’s presidential candidates an “independence double act.”
“If you are too obvious with election interference it could backfire,” the source said.
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