Following the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) election setback, Japanese journalist Tsuyoshi Nojima expressed his concern that China might be seeking to exploit the election results to mount a relentless campaign of cognitive warfare with the aim of manipulating Taiwanese public discourse and undermining the global community’s support for Taiwan.
Nojima’s concern was not baseless. The DPP lost seats not because the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) outperformed the DPP, but because the public chose to express its aversion to the DPP by voting for its greatest opponent, the KMT.
Voters did not cast their ballots for the KMT because of its “vote for KMT and ensure cross-strait peace” rhetoric, and most definitely not to pander to autocratic China.
It is worth reviewing the KMT’s performance over the past few months.
The rejection of all four referendum questions and losing the legislative by-election for Taichung’s second electoral district in March dealt consecutive blows to the KMT. Its approval rating nosedived, falling to below 15 percent.
Next, bribery accusations marred the KMT Central Standing Committee election while KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) handled the problems poorly.
In May, there was a series of conflicts and dissent from the local factions in response to the KMT’s mayoral candidate nominations. In October, the Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency slighted the KMT as a “relevant political party from China’s Taiwan region” after the KMT congratulated the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on its 20th National Congress.
In view of these blunders and gaffes, it is apparent that the KMT gained ground last month not because it fared better, but because the DPP made more mistakes than its opponent.
Taiwanese must remain vigilant, as the CCP continues to wage cognitive warfare against the nation.
The CCP is a notorious copycat. It sought to replicate Russia’s cognitive warfare pattern after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Taking a page out of Russia’s playbook of using hybrid warfare against Ukraine, China copied Russia’s tactic and used it on Taiwan.
By sowing division in Ukrainian society, it has exhausted Ukrainian economic and social resources to counter Russia’s cognitive warfare, while Ukrainians lost trust in their government.
Modeling after Russia’s method of invading and annexing Ukraine, China’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan can be broken down into four parts: shaking the Taiwanese faith in its military prowess, driving a wedge between Taiwan and the US, undermining the global community’s support of Taiwan and destroying the trust of Taiwanese in their government.
On the eve of Taiwan’s nine-in-one elections, China sent 11 jets, four ships and four bombers into the southwestern part of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
China is steadily intensifying its harassment and air incursions with the aim of exhausting Taiwan’s defenses and slowly whittling away Taiwanese resistance to unification.
After wearing down the nation and successfully shaping Taiwan’s public discourse, it could rely on Taiwan’s internal turmoil to pressure its government into signing deals that are in line with the CCP’s interests, and even calibrate its cross-strait policy.
Taiwan needs to send the right message to the global community to encourage it to reinforce its support to Taiwan’s democracy.
With the nine-in-one elections, Taiwan has again demonstrated its democratic system to the global community and proved that the public will is an autonomous entity that cannot be controlled by any political party.
Although China’s “zero COVID” policy has triggered outbursts of anger and demonstrations across China, where protesters in Shanghai and other cities called for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to step down, Xi has been obstinately clinging to power.
This marks the biggest difference between Taiwan and China. Taiwanese have shown how they value democracy with the transition of party leadership in the nine-in-one elections.
To deter China from using the election results to wage cognitive warfare, it is imperative that Taiwan safeguard its sovereignty, and continue to garner support for its freedom and democracy from the global community.
Knight Chang is a political worker and doctor of education.
Translated by Rita Wang
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