The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) large-scale joint exercises around Taiwan on Tuesday were accompanied by propaganda comparing itself to a mighty monkey warrior in Chinese mythology and President William Lai (賴清德) to a parasite, but experts said those messages were primarily meant for domestic audiences and were lost on Taiwanese.
In one video uploaded by the PLA on Weibo when it announced the start of the exercises, it compared its air and naval forces to the Monkey King from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West (西遊記). The video also included footage from the video game Black Myth: Wukong, juxtaposed with videos of PLA forces targeting Taipei 101 and what appeared to be the Wan Chun Fleet — CM-32 armored vehicles designated to protect the president during major crises or emergencies — cruising through Taipei’s Hankou Street.
Another posted video showed a cartoon of Lai as a parasite, held by its captor against a backdrop of a burning Taiwan ravaged by PLA forces.
Photo from Weibo
The videos were likely meant to “appease” the Chinese after recent events, including the deportation of Chinese national Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), also known as “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣), who often advocated for a “military takeover” of Taiwan by China, Tamkang University Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies assistant professor Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑) said.
China also wants to placate public discontent about sweeping policies Lai laid out to resist China’s attempts to destroy Taiwan’s sovereignty, and divide public opinion on the matter, Liu said.
Lai last month announced 17 measures to counter infiltration, including strengthening defense capabilities and economic security, and creating “action plans” to collaborate with Taiwan’s friends and diplomatic allies in demonstrating firm rejection of China’s attempts to take the nation.
National Defense and Security Research research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said the videos were primarily internal propaganda to galvanize the “little pinks,” a nickname for ethnocentric, pro-unification Chinese youths, amid reports of arrests of high-ranking PLA officials.
Those arrested include Central Military Commission Vice Chairman He Weidong (何衛東) and PLA Eastern Theater Command Commander Lin Xiangyang (林向陽), both of whom are perceived as loyalists of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
China’s uncertain economic outlook amid a heated trade war with the US, as evidenced by a meeting between Xi and more than 40 executives from international corporations on March 28 in a bid to attract foreign investment, could also explain the need to divert public attention, Su said.
Lin said the videos had a secondary objective: to wage psychological warfare against Taiwanese and, with the help of “local collaborators,” influence public opinion in Taiwan.
However, that would likely have a limited effect, as “you are unlikely to change how you perceive yourself just because of those videos,” Lin said.
Su said that if the propaganda was also targeting the Taiwanese public, it had failed, as Taiwan’s stock exchange proved unperturbed by the drills.
“This showed that even the investors, who are usually most sensitive to potentially adverse outside factors, did not seem to care much about the drills,” Su added.
Regarding whether Taiwanese media should report on Chinese propaganda, given that not many people in Taiwan follow Chinese state-run mouthpieces, Australian National University sessional lecturer Sung Wen-ti (宋文笛) said that it should, to bolster the public’s resiliency against propaganda.
“Democracies thrive on the free flow of information to create a more informed and resilient citizenry, as resiliency comes from exposure therapy, not protective bubbles,” Sung said. “What democracies need is a counterbalance against propaganda with better information, so as to build information literacy and immunity.”
Lin also said that Taiwanese media should report on the PLA, but provide facts to counter any unfounded claims, to avoid perpetuating disinformation.
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