Only 37.9 percent of people aged 20 to 24 believe that laws should be amended to prevent Taiwanese influencers from collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to push “united front” propaganda on social media, lower than all other age brackets, a poll carried out by the Association of Chinese Elite Leadership found yesterday.
Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛) secretary-general of the Association of Chinese Elite Leadership, said the results are a warning signal of the long-term effects of exposing young Taiwanese to Chinese social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu (小紅書), as they have become less alert to “united front” propaganda.
The association held a meeting to discuss the results of the survey, titled “Public perception of China’s recent ‘united front’ tactics,” carried out by Dadi Opinion Research over landline on Tuesday and Wednesday, and surveying 1,001 participants aged 20 or older.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Earlier this month, the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation hosted a group of Chinese students in Taipei, sparking protests after a member of the delegation referred to Taiwan’s national baseball team as “China, Taipei.”
The survey revealed that 35.6 percent of respondents believe the foundation should bear responsibility, while 15 percent said the visiting delegation should.
Asked whether they believed laws 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.
The CCP “buying” Taiwanese influencers to push propaganda was recently exposed and so was added to the survey, Wang said.
The findings should make the government consider amendments to the law, he said, adding that many factors must first be considered, such as freedom of speech, human rights and threats to national security.
Taiwan Thinktank committee member Tung Li-wen (董立文) said that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) always says that the more fraught cross-strait relations become, the more the two sides must communicate, but if that exchange does not consider Taiwan’s sovereignty or mutual respect, Taiwan could fall into the CCP’s trap and become a base for Chinese nationalism.
Amending the law to prohibit such behavior would be no easy feat, as it would be difficult to prove that the CCP is funding and controlling the propaganda, Tung said, adding that the government should increase the penalties outlined in applicable and existing laws.
Concerns about the CCP targeting Taiwanese influencers have also been raised by Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑), who at a news conference on Wednesday last week said that the practice is ongoing.
Where the CCP once used traditional media, entertainers and actors, now a much bigger threat 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, he said.
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