Results from a public poll carried out by the Association of Chinese Elite Leadership have revealed that only 37.9 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds believe that the law should be amended to prevent Taiwanese influencers from collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to push “united front” propaganda on social media, which was lower than all other age brackets polled.
The results are a warning signal of the long-term effects of exposing Taiwanese youth to Chinese social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu (小紅書, “Little Red Book”), as they have become less alert to “united front” propaganda, Association of Chinese Elite Leadership secretary-general Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛) said.
The association held a meeting today to discuss the results of the survey, titled “Public perception of China’s recent ‘united front’ tactics,” which was carried out by Dadi Opinion Research using landline telephone calls on Tuesday and Wednesday to survey 1,001 participants over the age of 20, it said.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
Earlier this month, the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation invited a group of Chinese students to Taipei, which sparked protests after a member of the Chinese delegation referred to Taiwan’s national baseball team as “China Taipei.”
The survey revealed that 35.6 percent of respondents believed the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation should bear responsibility, while 15 percent believed it should be the visiting delegation.
When asked whether they believed the law should be changed to prevent Taiwanese influencers from collaborating with the CCP to create “united front” propaganda, 56.3 percent agreed, 25.7 disagreed and 18 percent did not state an opinion, survey data showed.
The CCP “buying” Taiwanese influencers to push propaganda was recently exposed and so was added to the survey, Wang said.
Looking at the survey results as a whole, the findings should make the government consider amendments to the law, he said, though many factors must first be considered such as freedom of speech, human rights and threats to national security.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) always says that the more fraught cross-strait relations become, the more the two sides must communicate, however if exchanges do not take into consideration Taiwanese sovereignty or foster mutual respect, Taiwan could fall into the CCP’s trap and become a base for Chinese nationalism, Taiwan Thinktank committee member Tung Li-wen (董立文) said.
Amending the law to prohibit such behavior would not be easy, as it would be difficult to prove that the CCP is funding and controlling such propaganda, Tung said, advising the government to increase the penalties outlined in applicable and pre-existing laws.
Concerns about the CCP targeting Taiwanese influencers have also been raised by Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑), who held a media conference on Dec. 11, saying that the practice is ongoing, and while the CCP previously mainly used traditional media, entertainers and actors, a much bigger threat now is the use of influencers to sway Taiwan’s public opinion, an important tactic in the CCP’s “war on information” being waged against Taiwan.
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