Social media platforms have become the main arena of public opinion in recent years. The Chinese Communist Party has shifted its target from Taiwanese businessmen, Taiwanese youths, and land mates to specialize in “net stars”, targeting Taiwanese youths, university students, and artists for training as net stars and live broadcasters, learning content including short videos, live shows, net star creation, and live goods, in an attempt to seize this discourse, and even trying to follow the example of South Korean entertainment for Taiwan‘s influence. Experts believe that this tactic may be effective in the short term, but in the end it will only be a waste of Time.
The discourse, dominated by traditional media, is now gradually shifting to social media: the influence of opinion leaders is declining, and the power of online communities is beginning to emerge and influence the formation of public opinion. The Chinese Communist Party plans to promote the “1,000 Taiwanese Youth Anchor Training” program for Taiwanese youth across the Taiwan Strait from August 2020 to 2022. In August 2020, the “Cross-Strait Youth Netizen Anchor Competition” will be jointly organized to provide professional training and counseling on employment and entrepreneurship to attract Taiwanese youth to participate in related activities.
In an exclusive interview, Qiu Shiyi, an associate professor at the Department of Political Science at Tunghai University, believes that this is indeed a great incentive for young people in Taiwan to reach out and try, but he says bluntly, “It may not be effective in the short term, but it will definitely fail in the long term.”
He analyzed that because of the Hong Kong anti-sending China incident, the Xinjiang Uyghur persecution, and the concealment of the new coronavirus Epidemic, which led to a global pandemic, all of these vices are very unfavorable to the CCP, and it remains to be seen whether the impression can be changed in the short term through community brainwashing and glorification. In addition, there is also a linkage with the situation between the United States and China.
He cited the hard-line attitude taken by the Trump administration toward the CCP during the period, and the CCP’s use of this tactic will definitely not work unless the Biden administration is now clearly pro-communist, which may have an effect. However, he believes that Trump’s presidency has laid down the Anti-Communist pattern in the United States, which has changed the world situation along with it, towards the anti-communist path. Therefore, the effect of such a unification war is still very limited.
Taiwan’s “Hallyu” phenomenon, the Chinese Communist Party wants to do the same
In addition to the influence of “netizens,” the Chinese Communist Party has also observed that Korean entertainment Culture is now very popular in Taiwan. According to Qiu’s analysis, Taiwanese people between 40 and 50 years old are now fascinated by American, Japanese and Hong Kong culture, but now young Taiwanese are fascinated by Korean entertainment culture, “from hairstyles and eyebrows to Korean stars”.
Why is Korean entertainment culture so fascinating to Taiwanese people? This influence has made the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) think of ways to make the same thing happen, Qiu Shiyi said, adding that the CCP has been thinking of ways to study “how to make the ugly image of the CCP in the international arena be reversed in the generation of young Taiwanese people”.
In the past few years, the Chinese Communist Party has been attracting Taiwanese people to participate in large singing programs, such as “The Voice of China”, with its splendid productions and stage effects, and using them to create an image of the rise of China as a great power. To its own internal Chinese people, the CCP also keeps numbing the Chinese people’s feelings of wanting to pursue democracy and freedom with economic development and dirtiness.
In view of this, Qiu Shiyi said that the CCP may now move towards “light on politics and heavy on entertainment”, that is, to follow the influence of South Korean entertainment on Taiwan to unify Taiwan.
According to Chiu, this is indeed a great incentive for Taiwan’s young people, “but it is only treating the symptoms but not the root cause, and in the end it will be in vain”. After the affluence of Life, in the end, it is still necessary to discuss the essential issues, that is, the spiritual aspects of speech and freedom, and it is not easy for the CCP to change.
Some young people in Taiwan may be curious and absorb new knowledge in the short term, but as they enter the workplace, start a Family, and become the backbone of Taiwanese society, their thinking will change, and they will begin to think that they must give the next generation a democratic and free living environment, and abandon the CCP.
The Chinese Communist Party promotes model figures to brainwash only a few people
In addition, the mainland media also reported that the Chinese Communist Party created the “Xiamen Cross-Strait Youth Live E-Commerce Employment and Entrepreneurship Base” in Xiamen. The CCP has also shaped Taiwan’s vegetarian role models as propaganda models, actively establishing “Taiwan vegetarian role models” who can tell the CCP’s story well, encouraging Taiwanese in China to “say good things for the CCP”, hoping to “attract Taiwanese with Taiwanese”, and lowering perceptions of Taiwan. The hope is to “attract Taiwanese with Taiwanese” and lower the perceived resistance to Taiwan.
This is a model that the Chinese Communist Party has always used, such as Wang Bingzhong of the New Party and White Wolf of the United Promotion Party, but it is not effective, because 90% of the Taiwanese people have already had democratic DNA in their minds, but there is still a small group of people in Taiwan who hold the view that economic development is more important than anything else.
He stressed that instead of trying to find new ways to engage in new tricks and lock in new people and things, the Chinese Communist Party should change itself and give up the Chinese Communist system as a chance for China to rise again, when the Chinese people can gain the respect of the world.
Qiu Shiyi said that it would be a mistake to ask the CCP to change, but the evolution of history is unpredictable and will keep repeating itself, such as the Soviet Union, East and West Germany, and the Velvet Revolution in Eastern Europe.
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