False information on the Internet that casts doubt on Taiwan-US relations is affecting local support for the government’s diplomatic policy and allies of the government, an Information Operations Research Group (IORG) report said.
The report was in particular referring to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) now-confirmed meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Los Angeles today.
Compared with the visit by then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi in August last year, the McCarthy visit has garnered less attention online, especially on the Sina Weibo platform, with the topic only spiking in February when he was elected, said the report, which was released on Thursday last week.
That was definite sign that Beijing intentionally kept a possible McCarthy visit to Taiwan from appearing on the platform, the report said.
From August last year through February, the IORG database collected 112 million articles, 8,000 of which mentioned McCarthy, as the media cycle was at the time reporting on the possibility of him visiting Taiwan, it said.
The report noted that there were four categories of false information: “source of antagonism,” “abandonment,” “false friends” and “US-Taiwan collusion.”
Information in the first category suggests that the US is instigating trouble in the region, that the US is treating Taiwan as nothing but a chess piece or that Taiwan risks becoming an “Asian Ukraine,” it said.
In the “abandonment” category, the IORG included reports claiming that the US would sacrifice Taiwan for its own political benefit, or that pro-US sentiment would only lead to the outbreak of war.
Under the “false friends” category were reports that the Republican Party is using the Taiwan issue to build support for the US presidential election next year.
The “working together” category includes reports suggesting that the Democratic Progressive Party is working with, or agreeing, to let the US create a “protection racket,” or that the party is colluding with the US without paying attention to the risk of war.
The articles aim to smear the US, criticizing it for having alleged ulterior motives for sustaining Taiwan-US relations, but most of the false information is a Beijing-embellished regurgitation of previous reports on Taiwan, the report said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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