Taiwan leads in countering PRC disinformation and election meddling, experts say
"We have to be very careful about China's sophisticated brainwashing and cognitive warfare"
Last Friday, shortly after CSIS director David Vigneault confirmed in Foreign Interference Commission testimony that Justin Trudeau’s administration has been repeatedly warned Canada’s democracy is a “low-risk and high-reward” target for Chinese election-interference, disinformation experts from Taiwan told The Bureau they have no doubt that Beijing is quietly trying to subordinate the United State’s northern neighbour.
At a conference in Ottawa attended by U.S. and Taiwanese officials, Shun-Ching Yang of Doublethink Lab and Eve Chiu of Taiwan Fact Check Center explained how Taiwan has recently countered election interference campaigns and what they call “cognitive warfare” in Chinese-controlled media.
Taiwan’s government recognizes and disrupts Beijing’s covert funding of swarms of fake news sites and even faked election reporting, they said, pointing to charges laid against an online journalist who allegedly published fake polls in the run-up to Taiwan’s recent presidential election, at the behest of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in Fujian province.
But Beijing isn’t just tasking third-party operators to disseminate disinformation into Taiwanese elections, they said.
Automated accounts of fake users that are run through sophisticated computer systems and target Taiwanese citizens with CCP messaging on platforms including WeChat and Twitter, have become so pervasive and effective at blending political and non-political commentary, that Chinese officials have moved these systems offshore to Cambodia — seen as a proxy state for Chinese intelligence operations — in efforts to obscure Beijing’s involvement, Mr. Yang said in an interview.
One recent widespread CCP campaign discovered by Doublethink Lab targets Indian foreign workers in Taiwan, Mr. Yang said, smearing this whole cross-section of migrants as sexual predators, because Beijing wants to discourage closer social ties between its regional rival India and Taiwan.
Mr. Yang said he believes part of Beijing’s strategy to subsume Taiwan is increasing Mainland Chinese diaspora presence and attempting to minimize migration from other nations including India.
“We recognized fake accounts on Twitter saying Taiwan should not cooperate with India and we should introduce Chinese migrant workers,” he said.
The Bureau asked what message these Taiwanese disinformation experts would share with Canadians, in light of evidence that Chinese-controlled news sites and social media accounts were used to attack the Conservative Party of former leader Erin O’Toole in the 2021 election, and to smear British Columbia MP Kenny Chiu as an anti-Asian racist, because Chiu tabled a bill on foreign interference prior to the election.
“China has a very sick skill in reframing thinking of the society,” Yang said. “We have to be very careful about their sophisticated brainwashing of ideology, which we call cognitive warfare.”
“We have been facing this for decades, ever since I was a child,” Eve Chiu added. “I think China’s government is trying to colonize Canada, because you are an ally of the United States. So they are trying to manipulate Canada against the U.S., because now is a very big competition between China and the U.S.”
Regarding China’s efforts to interfere in diasporas abroad in order to protect Beijing’s interests, and recent comments from Prime Minister Trudeau that have equated scrutiny of Chinese interference with racism, Ms. Chiu said she believes Canada needs more mature policy regarding immigration and diaspora politics.
“The interests of Canada should be prioritized in a sophisticated way,” she said. “The message should not be against immigrants. But if you want to be a Canadian citizen, if there is a conflict between the interests of your mother country and Canada, you should understand that you must prioritize your new country.”
Meanwhile, Taiwanese officials shared data with The Bureau on the nation’s anti-infiltration laws, passed in 2019, about a year after Taiwan’s government recognized “Chinese efforts to influence politics and the democratic process, through illicit funding of politicians and the media and other methods,” according to Reuters.
There are 117 cases involving 287 suspects under the Anti-infiltration Act, officials said, including former lawmaker Hsien-yao Chang, who was questioned regarding the fabrication of opinion polls.
In a prominent case involving a prospective 2024 election candidate, former Taiwan People's Party spokeswoman Chih-wei Ma was detained and indicted for allegedly accepting cryptocurrency payments from China.
“Investigations suggest she received US$15,000 in cash and facilitated cryptocurrency transfers totalling over US$19,000,” a statement from Taiwanese officials in Canada said. “This case highlights a new method of using cryptocurrencies for untraceable funding, with China allegedly employing various channels, including U.S. dollars, cryptocurrencies, and unregulated cash transfers, to finance certain legislative candidates in Taiwan.”
sam@thebureau.news
An "Anti-Infiltration Act" sounds like just what the doctor ordered. Can we simply copy and paste the legislation from Taiwan? That must then take the wind out of the sails of anyone who would claim that any such legislation is a manifestation of "racism" as otherwise this objection seems to keep popping up in a truly exasperating manner, and one that also detracts from legitimate accounts of the phenomenon when it occurs.
Well one thing we know for sure is the Chinese Communist Government has completely captured the Federal Liberal Party of Canada , the Federal NDP, and the BC Liberal Party of the past and the BC NDP in power today. I mean completely captured them. Thanks Sam as always for keeping us informed and wide awake.