China has been creating fake social media accounts to interfere with the Nov. 24 elections as practice for manipulating the 2020 elections to elect candidates favorable toward Beijing, a National Security Bureau source said on Saturday.
China’s fake news is largely centered on issues related to Taiwan’s defense, cross-strait relations and the policies of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration, and generally gets published first by Chinese outlets such as the Global Times, Straits Today (今日海峽) and Taihai Net (台海網), the source said.
The content is then edited by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) cyberwarfare division or the 50 Cent Army — Internet users paid to support Beijing’s propaganda online — and reposted to PTT — Taiwan’s largest online bulletin board system — the Line messaging app, YouTube and other social media platforms, the source said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Internet
There are a growing number of Chinese accounts aimed at Taiwan on YouTube, such as Jianghu Baixiaosheng (江湖百曉生) and Touhao Zhanjiang (頭號戰將), which both have nearly 30,000 Taiwanese followers, the source said.
These accounts have each published nearly 1,000 videos in the six months they have been active, and the content is largely commentary critical of Tsai and US President Donald Trump sourced from the Global Times, the source added.
Some of the videos on Jianghu Baixiaosheng, including one advocating a PLA takeover of Taiwan, have been shared on Facebook by Taiwanese users, the source said.
China’s information warfare efforts are an evolution of a PLA unit that was established at the end of 2015 to conduct intelligence gathering, attacks on servers and networks, cognitive hacking and psychological warfare, the source said, adding that the branch today has an estimated 300,000 personnel.
Taiwan has long been a testing ground for Chinese cyberattacks, and last year the bureau intercepted an average of 100,000 online attacks from China per month, the source said.
China’s cyberwarfare specialists are familiar with social issues in Taiwan and inject divisive commentary into discussions on controversial topics in an attempt to create social strife, the source said, citing the fake story about Chinese consulate officials helping Chinese passengers stranded at Osaka’s Kansai International Airport following Typhoon Jebi.
Bureau Director-General Peng Sheng-chu (彭勝竹) on Thursday told a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee that Beijing and the PLA were behind a propaganda campaign to interfere with the nation’s democratic elections by creating disinformation and fake news targeting Taiwanese media outlets, radio and television programs and Web sites, Peng said.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) on Friday told an inter-ministerial meeting at the Executive Yuan that this month’s elections were being undermined because of China’s spread of disinformation, financial support of certain candidates and sponsoring of television and radio programs, as well as cyberattacks.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS