China is refining its information warfare tactics in an attempt to create animosity toward the government and nations friendly to Taiwan, an information security official said on Saturday, following the release of a fabricated Presidential Office announcement online.
A fake announcement that appeared to be from the Presidential Office was circulated on Facebook on Thursday, claiming that the government planned to accept contaminated wastewater from Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
The post was reported to authorities, who on Friday confirmed that it was fake and had originated in China.
The announcement showed improvements in China’s ability to fabricate misinformation compared with attempts made last year, but there were still telltale signs that it was fake, Division of Cyber Warfare and Information Security head Tseng Yi-shuo (曾怡碩) said.
The announcement was an attempt by China to sow mistrust in the government, and to create a divide in the Taiwan-Japan relationship, he said.
Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau officers in December last year investigated two Taiwanese who were spreading a fake Presidential Office announcement alleging Taiwanese and US involvement in protests in Thailand.
The investigators found that the men had spent time in China where Chinese officials trained them to fabricate and disseminate misinformation, he said.
“Comparing that announcement made in December with this recent one, there are obvious improvements — there are much fewer errors,” he said.
The announcement alleged that the wastewater would be brought into Taiwan through Kaohsiung’s Zuoying (左營) naval base, which was likely meant to harm the Democratic Progressive Party administration’s support base in southern Taiwan, he said.
“Beijing increasingly understands the situation in Taiwan, and it has a grasp on the sensitive issues in different communities,” he said.
The situation could be compared to Russia’s interference in social issues in the US last year, with the purpose of affecting the outcome of the US’ presidential election, he said.
Meanwhile, political science researcher Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) said that while altering images and documents requires only minimal skill, what was important is what the timing and content of the document showed about who was really behind it.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
RSS