The Executive Yuan yesterday warned against traveling to or doing business in China after reports that Beijing is recruiting Taiwanese to help conceal the use of forced Uighur labor.
The government is aware that Taiwan-based influencers and businesses are being asked to make pro-Beijing content and offered incentives to invest in the region, Executive Yuan acting spokeswoman Julia Hsieh (謝子涵) told a news conference.
Taiwanese are urged to be aware of the potential personal and reputational harm by visiting or operating businesses in China, Hsieh said, adding that agencies are fully apprised of the situation.
Photo: AP
A national security official said that former Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) members who served under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) are to lead a delegation of Taiwanese investors to Xinjiang on Sept. 19.
China since last month has been arranging for business groups to tour the region in a move to evade international outcry over China’s use of forced Uighur labor and support for the Russian war effort in Ukraine, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Beijing officials “encourage Taiwanese entrepreneurs to establish a presence or facilitate the flow of logistics through Central Asia,” the source said. “The purpose is to conceal the point of origin labels on their products and draw investments for cotton.”
Chinese Communist Party regional head Ma Xinrui (馬興瑞) is overseeing these activities, the official said.
Taiwanese investments might help Beijing’s efforts to stabilize its flagging economy, especially the real-estate sector and capital flows, they said.
State-affiliated studios produce content on daily life, consumer goods and tourism pushing narratives that deny instability in Hong Kong and mass incarceration of Uighurs in Xinjiang, they said.
These studios are followed by up to 130 million people on social media and the introduction of artificial intelligence allowed some to generate the same content in 40 to 50 languages, the official said.
On Tuesday, Oakland University associate professor of journalism and public relations Su Chiao-ning (蘇巧寧) told a conference in Washington that Taiwanese are being co-opted in Beijing’s cognitive warfare activities.
Beijing is accused of committing human rights abuses including torture, compulsory institutionalization and sexual violence against incarcerated Uighurs, Su said, citing a UN report on China’s alleged crimes of humanity dated 2022.
Travel content promoting the beautiful rustic landscape and simple honest folk of Xinjiang is flooding Taiwanese social media amid a violent Chinese campaign to wipe out the Uighur language and culture, she said.
The spread of propaganda created by the communist regime’s apologists is a dangerous trend for Taiwan, Su said, adding that the government must do more to promote public awareness about Beijing’s influence on media.
The MAC yesterday said there has been a significant rise in content produced by influencers designed to promote Xinjiang as an ideal destination for travel and investment.
“We are still trying to understand the real motives behind this so-called ‘Xinjiang fever,’” MAC Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference.
Some of the promotional content about Xinjiang is attempting to whitewash Beijing’s human rights record in the region, Liang said.
“Due to human rights issues, clothes made from Xinjiang-grown cotton is now boycotted by many countries in the international community. Those seeking business opportunities there should be aware of the situation,” he said.
If Internet celebrities received funding from the Chinese government to produce videos or other content, they could be contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) for receiving instructions, sponsorships or petitions from hostile foreign forces to disrupt social order, disseminate false information and interfere in elections in Taiwan, he added.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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