The Executive Yuan yesterday warned against traveling to or doing business in China after reports that Beijing is recruiting Taiwanese to help conceal the use of forced Uighur labor.
The government is aware that Taiwan-based influencers and businesses are being asked to make pro-Beijing content and offered incentives to invest in the region, Executive Yuan acting spokeswoman Julia Hsieh (謝子涵) told a news conference.
Taiwanese are urged to be aware of the potential personal and reputational harm by visiting or operating businesses in China, Hsieh said, adding that agencies are fully apprised of the situation.
Photo: AP
A national security official said that former Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) members who served under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) are to lead a delegation of Taiwanese investors to Xinjiang on Sept. 19.
China since last month has been arranging for business groups to tour the region in a move to evade international outcry over China’s use of forced Uighur labor and support for the Russian war effort in Ukraine, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Beijing officials “encourage Taiwanese entrepreneurs to establish a presence or facilitate the flow of logistics through Central Asia,” the source said. “The purpose is to conceal the point of origin labels on their products and draw investments for cotton.”
Chinese Communist Party regional head Ma Xinrui (馬興瑞) is overseeing these activities, the official said.
Taiwanese investments might help Beijing’s efforts to stabilize its flagging economy, especially the real-estate sector and capital flows, they said.
State-affiliated studios produce content on daily life, consumer goods and tourism pushing narratives that deny instability in Hong Kong and mass incarceration of Uighurs in Xinjiang, they said.
These studios are followed by up to 130 million people on social media and the introduction of artificial intelligence allowed some to generate the same content in 40 to 50 languages, the official said.
On Tuesday, Oakland University associate professor of journalism and public relations Su Chiao-ning (蘇巧寧) told a conference in Washington that Taiwanese are being co-opted in Beijing’s cognitive warfare activities.
Beijing is accused of committing human rights abuses including torture, compulsory institutionalization and sexual violence against incarcerated Uighurs, Su said, citing a UN report on China’s alleged crimes of humanity dated 2022.
Travel content promoting the beautiful rustic landscape and simple honest folk of Xinjiang is flooding Taiwanese social media amid a violent Chinese campaign to wipe out the Uighur language and culture, she said.
The spread of propaganda created by the communist regime’s apologists is a dangerous trend for Taiwan, Su said, adding that the government must do more to promote public awareness about Beijing’s influence on media.
The MAC yesterday said there has been a significant rise in content produced by influencers designed to promote Xinjiang as an ideal destination for travel and investment.
“We are still trying to understand the real motives behind this so-called ‘Xinjiang fever,’” MAC Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference.
Some of the promotional content about Xinjiang is attempting to whitewash Beijing’s human rights record in the region, Liang said.
“Due to human rights issues, clothes made from Xinjiang-grown cotton is now boycotted by many countries in the international community. Those seeking business opportunities there should be aware of the situation,” he said.
If Internet celebrities received funding from the Chinese government to produce videos or other content, they could be contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) for receiving instructions, sponsorships or petitions from hostile foreign forces to disrupt social order, disseminate false information and interfere in elections in Taiwan, he added.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
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