Taiwan is looking at Ukraine’s ways of communicating its message to the outside world at a time of conflict, by making use of tools such as satellites and deploying humor, Minister of Digital Development Audrey Tang (唐鳳) said yesterday.
Chinese blockade drills around Taiwan last month, following a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have heightened concerns in the nation about the prospect of an attack by its larger neighbor.
“We look at the experience of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. We found that the whole world can know what is happening there in real time,” Tang said.
Photo: CNA
Ukraine had effectively conveyed its message to the world, Tang said, adding that keeping up high-quality communication in real time was critical to its effort.
“It’s not only for our own people, but also for the people who care about us all over the world, so that we can enlist the assistance of international friends,” Tang said.
Among Tang’s plans to preserve communications if China attacks are a NT$550 million (US$17.7 million) satellite trial program to ensure Internet services across Taiwan.
The goal was to maintain social stability and keep Taiwan’s command systems running by “instantly” switching to alternative forms of communication, such as satellites in middle and lower orbit, she said.
Several Taiwanese companies are in talks with international satellite service providers, seeking partnerships after such service is legalized in Taiwan, she added, but gave no details.
Ukraine has been using SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband service.
Tang helped craft Taiwan’s public messaging for the COVID-19 pandemic, using memes and humor to fight disinformation, much of which the government accused China of spreading, although Beijing denied it.
“We say very publicly that our playbook is ‘humor over rumor,’” she said.
“As we have seen with the Ukrainian example, there are also people who use ideas of even comedy, but certainly Internet memes, to spread a message that rallies the people,” Tang said.
A prolific Twitter user with more than 250,000 followers, Tang said she was not bothered by online attacks, which can include accusations that she is a “separatist.”
Chinese state media make heavy use of Twitter and other Western social media platforms, even though they are banned in China.
Asked about China using social media in its messaging campaign against Taiwan in case of a war, Tang said that was already happening.
“From my point of view it’s my daily life,” she said. “Already, the kind of propaganda as you call it, the kind of narratives going on on Twitter, that’s already what we face daily.”
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