China attempted to flood online forums with negative and misleading information about the Han Kuang exercises, the Ministry of National Defense communications division said yesterday.
The comments were discovered and removed before they could have any effect, the division said.
The military has been widely praised for its performance during this year’s exercises, which likely caught the attention of hackers working for the Chinese government, the report said.
One military official, who declined to be named, said that Russian is adept at the strategy of using online posts to influence public sentiment, citing the conflict in the Ukraine and elections in France and Germany.
Chinese hackers used the strategy late last year when fake photographs showing Chinese jets flying over Yushan (玉山) were posted online, the official said.
The cyberattacks clearly demonstrate the challenge of maintaining a secure online environment and the National Security Bureau needs to be aware of the issue, the official said.
The five-day Han Kuang exercises ended on Friday.
The military’s media outlets posted video clips daily, as it has done during the exercises for several years.
This year’s use of panoramic photographs and aerial shots proved especially popular with online visitors, the official said, adding that these posts in particular were targeted by China’s hackers.
Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) praised the military’s media outlets and the Voice of Han Broadcasting Network, for their quick updates during the Han Kuang exercises.
The outlets also did a good job of handling the cyberattacks, Feng said.
The attacks came from anonymous users and appeared to be aimed at deflating officers’ morale, he said.
When such propaganda first began online, it was clearly from non-Taiwanese users, as the language was inconsistent with local usage. Later, Chinese hackers learned to imitate Taiwanese and demonstrated strong familiarity with local issues.
The efforts made to imitate Taiwanese users indicate the importance the Chinese place on influencing local public opinion.
Military media outlets’ family-themed videos, such as a series it made for Mother’s Day titled Steel Wife, also came under attack from hackers, the official said.
“No military countermeasures are needed. The public attack the hackers on their own — like a defense ministry of the people,” the official said.
However, the military is actively dealing with hackers through various countermeasures, the official said, adding that it “goes to battle every day.”
“Taiwan is fortunate to be a democracy with such free access to information. Although it is hard to manage at times, the public is getting better at distinguishing real posts from fake ones,” officials said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS