China is stepping up cognitive warfare against Taiwan, as its United Front Work Department develops a specialized misinformation task force, a national security official said.
China is currently holding the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an annual gathering of the Chinese government known as the “two sessions.”
United Front Work Department head Shi Taifeng (石泰峰) has convened a specialized task force aimed at spreading misinformation about the situation in Ukraine and Taiwan’s semiconductor investments in the US, a national security source said on condition of anonymity.
Photo: Reuters
Spreading this wave of misinformation is a top priority for Beijing, the source cited Shi as saying at the “two sessions.”
As China is highly uncertain of US President Donald Trump’s evolving policies, it must “make Taiwanese people doubt the US and hate Trump, and ensure divisions within Taiwan run long and deep,” he said, according to the source.
The goal of the operation is to “make sure no one in Taiwan trusts the US,” he reportedly said, calling for all government agencies to mobilize and “treat this as a real battle.”
This new wave of cognitive warfare aims to spread narratives that Trump wants to sell out Taiwan, that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co would become American and that Taiwan would ultimately fail against China, the source said.
These narratives are to be spread rapidly by Chinese state media, social media platforms and a network of fake accounts and cooperative media outlets in Taiwan, they said.
National security agencies have already noticed suspicious accounts spreading this misinformation in recent days, the source added.
China’s Ministry of State Security has proposed exploiting divisions over Trump within Taiwan to deepen internal conflict, another national security official said.
It also proposed to spread Taiwanese criticism of Trump and on X and other English-language social media platforms to make Trump think Taiwanese are attacking him, sowing discord in Taiwan-US relations, the official said.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
RSS