Matthew Fulco writes for the American Chamber Taiwan about the efforts of Chinese Communist Party to use social media to reach younger Taiwanese whom they hope to convince of the benefits or at least inevitability of CCP takeover of the island.
Fulco uses an example of a recent CCP YouTube video with a misleading title that draws on several anxieties, including the Taiwan-administered Kinmen islands situated close to the Fujian coast, which Taipei pays the mainland government to supply fresh water to. Yet the video suggests that the people Kinmen should mostly be thankful to the CCP and that they would be much happier under the Party’s rule. The video also suggests the United States is unhappy with Taiwan about this situation.
According to Fulco’s reporting, the CCP is very interested in making the Taiwanese feel isolated, by suggesting a disagreement with the US and by suggesting that the US itself is in such disarray that it cannot be relied upon.
But the Taiwan public is highly educated and can be relied on to sniff out much of the propaganda, even based on differences in mainland vocabulary. And Taiwan has a robust civil society, including the DoubleThink Lab, which reports on CCP influence operations.
