Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday called on like-minded partners to unite against cognitive warfare used by authoritarian regimes, adding that the government is striving to combat disinformation leading up to the presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 13.
Wu made the remarks at a policy forum held by Taipei-based think tank Doublethink Lab and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China to explore how policymakers can respond to mounting concerns over China’s activities and influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Taiwan has always been a target of China’s intimidation and political coercion, as well as “a testing ground for China’s cognitive warfare,” which aims to manipulate the outcome of Taiwan’s elections, Wu said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Utilizing military threats, economic coercion, disinformation campaigns and illegal financial flows, Beijing is attempting to create social division and mistrust to undermine the nation’s democratic system, he said.
“We should not let authoritarian China get its way and get away with it,” he said, calling on international partners to “unite and develop a strong response.”
There is a need to raise awareness about the nature and extent of China’s malign influence on Taiwan and the rest of the democratic world, he said.
To counter China’s interference, the government has established a cross-agency mechanism for reporting, verifying and rapidly clarifying disinformation, he said.
It has also bolstered policy communication among sectors of society and is working to enhance public media literacy, he said.
The public and private sectors are working together to counter cognitive warfare initiated by authoritarian regimes, he said, adding that non-governmental organizations can provide great insight and effective solutions to the issue.
Shiori Kanno, a former member of the Japanese House of Representatives, said that in Japan, there is a heightened awareness that “a crisis in Taiwan is a crisis in Japan.”
Japan has been boosting cooperation with other countries to safeguard a free and open Indo-Pacific region and to ensure that the “status quo” is not changed by force, Kanno said.
The Taiwan issue is frequently mentioned in speeches by Japanese legislators, she said, adding that public concern over national security issues contributed to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s decision to increase Japan’s defense-related spending to 2 percent of GDP.
Explaining how a potential cross-strait conflict would affect the economy might be the most effective way to raise public awareness, she said.
If Japan’s trade with Taiwan were cut off by a cross-strait crisis, Japanese GDP would fall 1.4 percent and might worsen, she said, citing data from a Japanese think tank.
Philippine Representative Adrian Amatong said that “as much as we’d like to strongly express our support for Taiwan,” it would mean nothing to China, as the Philippines is a relatively small country.
It is therefore crucial for international partners to unite and develop solutions to avoid an escalation in the region, Amatong said.
People in South Korea feel the Chinese threat “quite concretely” and are generally opposed to the prospect of war across the Taiwan Strait, South Korean National Assembly member Ji Seong-ho said.
In related news, the Central Election Commission yesterday announced that a review of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates from the Democratic Progressive Party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party showed that all six met the qualifications stipulated in the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法).
No candidates hold nationalities of foreign countries, have restored citizenship or acquired citizenship by naturalization, which would disqualify them from registering as candidates, the commission said.
Additional reporting by Li Wen-hsin
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