A new report released by a Taiwanese research organization says that the Chinese authorities are involved in and leading information manipulation and interpersonal infiltration of Taiwan in an attempt to change the Taiwanese public’s perception of China, Taiwan’s government, democratic institutions, and even international relations through the dissemination of false information.
IORG (Information Operations Research Group), a Taiwan-based research organization, released a research report on Tuesday (October 20) entitled “China’s Information Manipulation and Interpersonal Infiltration of Taiwan,” which points to Beijing’s role in the “Wuhan Lung Campaign. The report points out that Beijing has disseminated false information on a series of issues related to Wuhan pneumonia, which has disturbed the public and manipulated information about Taiwan, including “U.S. influenza is more serious than Wuhan pneumonia,” “the U.S. is using the Wuhan Military Games” and “the U.S. is using the Wuhan Olympics” to manipulate information about Taiwan. Spreading a new coronavirus,” and “the U.S. flu is Wuhan pneumonia,” among others.
IORG co-host Wang Xi told VOA that China’s information manipulation has risen to the level of state-to-state dialogue, “It’s China’s way of shouting at the entire international community, and maybe even helping their internal stability as a result.”
In the report, IORG also publishes a visual map of China’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan, documenting the path of disinformation from individuals, private citizens, government organizations, and media into Taiwan’s public opinion circles. The report cites the “Wuhan Pneumonia Information Manipulation Incident” as an example, noting that after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted on March 12, the original three points of misinformation about “Wuhan Pneumonia” gradually formed into a full-fledged information manipulation discourse, and that on this basis, “Wuhan Pneumonia” is now a full-fledged information manipulation discourse. The U.S. was accused of being responsible for Wuhan pneumonia. This tweet by Zhao Lijian can still be found on Twitter.
“I think (disinformation-based information operations) it should essentially be positioned as a part of China’s foreign political propaganda in the geopolitical structure,” said Huang Zhao-nian, an assistant professor at the Institute of National Development Studies at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, at a press conference on Tuesday, adding that information operations often use disinformation to create public acceptance that authoritarianism is better than democracy.
IORG co-host Chi Ho You said at Tuesday’s press conference, “We believe the key to the success of China’s manipulation of Taiwan lies with Taiwan’s local collaborators.” According to IORG, “local collaborators” in this context refers to people in Taiwan who are actively spreading disinformation propagated by the CCP and who objectively contribute to the CCP’s manipulation of information in Taiwan, regardless of their subjective consciousness: political pundits, mainstream media, social media, instant messaging platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Twitter, etc.), and others. (IORG) and Line.
In the report, IORG cites, for example, Taiwanese TV pundit Chao Shao-kang, who said on TVBS that “the U.S. flu is worse than Wuhan pneumonia,” and pundit Pan Huizong, who said on an Easton TV program that “China’s information manipulation of Taiwan has been successful and effective. Quoting Chinese paper, “U.S. is the Source of Viruses”.
AIT spokesperson Amanda Mansour, who attended the IORG press conference, said that many countries are facing the problem of misinformation and hopes that other countries can learn from Taiwan’s experience and research. “Misinformation poses a great threat to democracy, it corrupts the media environment, it creates divisions in our society, and it lowers people’s confidence in their government. In order to face this challenge, the first step is to better understand it, and I hope that the IORG report will further assist democracies in understanding their adversaries.
Chen Bo-wei, a legislator from the Taiwan Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee for the Ki-jin Party, told the Voice of America that disinformation should not become the norm, so we have to strengthen the public’s ability to recognize disinformation. He stressed: “Freedom of speech is not to finish speaking and then it’s okay, freedom of speech is to finish speaking and then you tell me what’s right and what’s wrong.”
The IORG research team has been conducting research on China’s manipulation of Taiwan’s information since January 2020 and expects to release a final report in March 2021.
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