Taiwan has long served as a source of contention between the Chinese government and the self-ruled nation. With Taiwan scheduled to hold its crucial presidential election in January, the country is bracing for an onslaught of disinformation from China.
China has long believed that Taiwan is a breakaway province that will one day be reunified with the mainland and has taken steps to try and influence the nation’s politics. In the past few months, Beijing has ramped up its attempts to spread disinformation across social media and other communications platforms.
The Chinese government has sought to spread disinformation and lies about the pro-independence candidate, as well as promote the image of the mainland Chinese as the benevolent friend to the Taiwanese people. Beijing has also sought to play up the idea of “unity” between the two countries, while obscuring the reality of Taiwan’s independence.
In response, the Taiwanese government has taken steps to counter the Chinese disinformation campaign and protect itself from any meddling. It has placed a ban on Chinese social media platforms, which limits the ability of Chinese government agents to spread their message on the ground.
The Taiwanese authorities have also enlisted the help of tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Microsoft to help monitor the online activity of Chinese agents and detect and flag any suspicious activity.
Finally, the Taiwanese government is focusing on educating the public about the risks of disinformation campaigns and how to identify and combat them. Officials are actively encouraging the public to become “information literacy experts” and learn to discern between truth and fiction.
It remains to be seen whether these measures will be effective in countering China’s increasingly sophisticated information war against Taiwan. However, the Taiwanese government has made it clear that it is determined to protect its citizens from the flood of disinformation coming from Beijing and safeguarding the independence and integrity of their democracy.
