The Chinese government has signed one-month contracts with Paraguayan media outlets to promote negative coverage of Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) visit next week to the South American country, as it seeks to discredit Taiwan and affect its presidential election in January, national security sources said on condition of anonymity.
That includes content supporting Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is part of China, accusing Taiwan of hurting Paraguay’s stability and “welcoming” China for the sake of Paraguay’s advancement, they said on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) condemned the actions, calling them part of China’s “cognitive warfare to interfere” with Lai’s trip.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
“China has been bribing media over the past two weeks to release false reports that smear Taiwan’s diplomatic efforts in an attempt to suppress Taiwan’s diplomatic space,” it said in a statement.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When Lai transits through the US, Beijing has mobilized the Alliance for China’s Peaceful Reunification and Chinese expatriates to protest, a national security official said yesterday on condition of anonymity, citing intelligence sources.
When Lai arrives in New York and San Francisco, Chinese demonstrators would stage rallies, while pro-Beijing ads would appear in local Chinese-language newspapers, they said.
At the same time, Beijing-controlled media in Taiwan are expected to generate skepticism about Lai as they attempt to frame the presidential election next year as a choice between war and peace, the official said.
In response to China’s announcement that it would hold military drills in the East China Sea from today, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is likely to stage its own response to Lai’s visit by making a show of the upcoming Eastern Theater Command’s annual exercise.
These drills’ purpose would be to interfere with Taiwan’s election and intimidate voters into choosing candidates preferred by Beijing, the ministry said.
The PLA’s deployment of warships and military aircraft near Taiwan were frequently conducted in conjunction with Beijing’s cognitive warfare efforts in mind, it said, adding that it uses false reporting to amplify the effect of the drills.
Its most likely course of action is to conduct a beefed-up version of its so-called “preparedness patrols” in April and send even more ships and airplanes near Taiwan, national security sources said.
Taipei is closely monitoring the PLA’s movements with the expectation that some display of military force would come with the exercise, they said.
“If China uses this [Lai’s trip] to take provocative action, it will be China that damages regional peace and security, not Taiwan or the United States,” MOFA spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) told reporters.
Taipei-based diplomats were divided on China’s likely reaction, eight diplomatic and foreign security sources said.
One said Beijing’s and Washington’s bid to improve relations could temper China’s response.
However, a senior foreign security source said Beijing would have to put on a show of force given its angry denouncements of the trip.
“They have pretty much backed themselves into a corner and will have to do something,” the source told Reuters.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg, Reuters and Wu Su-wei
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