Chinese disinformation in Taiwan is nothing new, but the CCP is spreading it more effectively than ever before through the internet and social media.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/04/26
By: By Russell Hsiao, China Brief

Photo Credit：REUTERS/達志影像

At the height of the ongoing controversial pension reforms debate in Taiwan, LINE – the most popular messaging application on the island – and internet users reportedly began seeing a flood of messages and numerous websites that falsely claimed that the central government was planning to impose draconian restrictions on pensioners.

Alerted by the potential instability that such rumors may cause in a society already on edge over the issue, the Taiwan government quickly issued a statement denying the fake news. According to Taiwan’s national security apparatuses, a growing volume of disinformation are the products of “content farms” emerging from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The disinformation campaign concerning the pension reform is one example in a long history of the use of propaganda and disinformation as political tools across the Taiwan Strait. While Taiwan may have enjoyed an advantage at the beginning of the information war due to access to more resources and technology (e.g., help from the United States), that advantage is eroding as Beijing, while remaining a close authoritarian government, exploits the openness and transparency of Taiwan’s democratic and economic system to unduly influence Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]