Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) heavyweight and media personality Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) yesterday criticized China, saying it should stay out of the party’s chairperson election and urging national security agencies to investigate what he described as a surge of online disinformation that constitute a threat to national security.
The six candidates vying for the chair are former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), KMT Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), former KMT lawmaker Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), former Changhua County commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) and former National Assembly representative Tsai Chih-hong (蔡志弘).
Jaw told a news conference that the election is an internal party matter, but has been met with “an overwhelming wave of Chinese intervention,” particularly targeting Hau.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
A number of YouTube accounts, many of them created in August or last month, have been discussing the election, Jaw said, adding that they often use simplified Chinese and phrasing typical of Chinese online discourse.
“If Beijing succeeds in influencing the KMT chair election, the party is finished, and by extension, so are Taiwan and the Republic of China,” he said.
His remarks came after Hau on Thursday called for an end to the online attacks against him and his supporters, saying that “foreign forces” and “fellow party members” are spreading false content to smear his campaign.
Hau on Facebook wrote that he has become the target of a coordinated disinformation effort involving fake accounts and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated material.
The attacks were “stronger than any organized campaign seen from the Democratic Progressive Party’s [DPP] online teams,” he said, adding that many of the fake accounts appeared to originate from abroad.
Professional firms had been hired to trace the sources, adding that they estimated that the operation had cost nearly NT$100 million (US$3.27 million), he said.
Chang said that throughout the campaign, multiple AI-generated statistics and short videos were produced to attack the candidates, including himself, adding that the “commonality” among the videos and data was that they appeared designed to promote support for a specific candidate.
Chang called on Cheng — a dark horse in the race who has emerged as a favorite among the KMT’s “deep blue” supporters — to “admit it if you did it, and deny it if you did not.”
Jaw said that the scale of the campaign targeting Hau suggested it was orchestrated by a group rather than individuals.
Beijing is attempting to influence the KMT election by supporting a candidate it can control, or at least one who is receptive to its suggestions, Jaw said.
Hau’s recent comment that he would not be a “Chinese Communist Party bootlicker” made him a candidate Beijing would not want to see as KMT chairman, Jaw said.
Cheng said the KMT should avoid infighting and not cast a pall over the election, urging fellow candidates to exercise restraint.
The chair election has garnered more public attention than expected, which is better than being a quiet event of little regard, she said, adding that all candidates should uphold the highest standards of democratic conduct throughout the campaign.
Lo yesterday said that if a fellow candidate were behind the smear campaign, they would be unfit to become chairperson.
However, one should not leap to conclusions, he said, urging his rivals to exercise restraint and decorum during the campaign.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday urged party members to exercise restraint, adding that the election is to choose a leader to lead the party against the DPP.
The KMT is scheduled to hold a party-wide vote to elect a new chairperson on Saturday next week, with the winner to take office on Nov. 1 for a four-year term, succeeding Chu.
Additional reporting by Liu Wan-lin
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