The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) interference in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair election is not aimed at overtly backing a particular candidate, but at sowing distrust within the KMT to create internal friction and increase its dependence on China, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday.
Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), a KMT chair candidate, on Thursday wrote on Facebook that he had been targeted by “external cyberwarriors” who were interfering with the election by disseminating false rumors.
Former Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) on Saturday said the “external forces” were from China, urging Beijing to halt the interference and calling it a national security issue that Taiwanese authorities should investigate.
Photo: CNA
Hung Pu-chao (洪浦釗), deputy director of the Center for Mainland China and Regional Development Research at Tunghai University, said the controversy over “online troll intervention” in the KMT race shows how China’s cognitive warfare has escalated to a “political experiment.”
“It no longer targets only the ruling party,” Hung said. “It has also begun infiltrating opposition parties, using artificial intelligence and coordinated social-media operations to test the resilience of Taiwan’s political system.”
The key to the operation is not merely disinformation, but “real manipulation,” he said.
China employs AI-generated comments, synthetic videos and fake accounts to amplify specific narratives and create a false sense of consensus, he said.
China also mobilizes online influencers and opinion leaders through commercial cooperation and soft content placements to “localize” external narratives, disguising interference as spontaneous public opinion, he added.
As the “influence economy” becomes a political proxy, infiltration has already seeped deep into everyday online communities, he added.
This form of “decentralized control” is a type of psychological warfare not intended to make people believe in China, but to make them doubt reality itself, Hung said.
When KMT members start accusing one another of being manipulated by China, that means Beijing’s strategy has worked, he said.
Hung urged the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and opposition parties to initiate legislative reforms to counter Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics, saying that Taipei still lacks a defense system against AI penetration and cognitive warfare.
Laws governing national security, cybersecurity and digital intermediary services should be integrated to clearly define AI-generated content and cognitive-warfare activities, Hung said.
Social media companies should be required to disclose sources of political advertising and cross-border amplification, while influencers and opinion leaders should be mandated to declare any foreign cooperation, he said.
Separately, a national security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, yesterday said that authorities were aware of Chinese interference in the KMT chairperson election.
China has long used hybrid tactics to manipulate and disrupt the normal functioning of politics in democratic countries, including Taiwan, by provoking and escalating social divisions, the official said.
Efforts are under way to strengthen relevant legislation, they said, expressing hope for bipartisan support so Taiwan can effectively block foreign interference.
Meanwhile, KMT Taipei City Councilor Liu Tsai-wei (柳采葳), accompanied by Jaw, filed a report with the Taipei City Police Department’s Zhongshan Precinct over an AI-generated video that altered a selfie of her and Hau to make it appear as if they were kissing.
Police said they were investigating possible charges including defamation, personal data breaches and fabrication of fake images, adding that preliminary findings suggested the video originated from a foreign IP address.
The video was clearly a manipulated photograph, Jaw said, calling the act despicable.
He said he disagreed with former KMT lawmaker Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文), another chair candidate, who on Saturday said that online speech should not be treated as a national security issue.
“Freedom of online expression is not unlimited, especially when cross-border activities involve relations across the Taiwan Strait,” Jaw said. “If this does not qualify as a national security issue, what does?”
Large-scale cyberattacks and defamation campaigns seeking to influence elections are among Taiwan’s most serious national security threats, he added.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu, Hsieh Chun-lin and Esme Yeh
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