China has escalated its interference in Taiwan\u2019s upcoming presidential election, with a top Chinese leader urging officials to enhance effectiveness and discretion, CNN reported, citing a senior Taiwanese security official. Wang Huning, the fourth-ranking leader in China\u2019s Communist Party and head of Taiwan affairs, reportedly convened a high-level meeting last week to coordinate efforts to influence the January 13 election. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, cited information from the Taiwanese intelligence community, saying that Wang emphasised the need to step up influence on Taiwan\u2019s public opinion while minimising detectable interference.<\/p>\n
Wang, a longtime advisor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, was put in charge of Taiwan affairs earlier this year after he was appointed as the deputy head of the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, a decision-making body chaired by Xi, according to CNN. The Taiwanese official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, also said that Wang told officials in the meeting that China\u2019s Communist Party must step up its effectiveness in influencing Taiwan\u2019s public opinion while reducing the likelihood that external parties could find evidence of such interference.<\/p>\n
The allegations surface amid heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait, with China increasing military, political, and economic pressure on Taiwan. The current polls show Vice President Lai Ching-te, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate, in the lead. Beijing, which opposes the DPP, has long been accused of meddling in Taiwan\u2019s elections to support candidates favouring closer ties with China. The Taiwanese official claimed that the meeting was convened after Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited San Francisco last month, during which US President Joe Biden cautioned against interference in Taiwan\u2019s elections. Wang reportedly stressed the importance of strategizing to avoid external parties easily finding evidence of Beijing\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n
Officials attending the meeting were instructed to coordinate with the Communist Party\u2019s Central Propaganda Department and Base 311 of the People\u2019s Liberation Army, a psychological warfare unit in Fuzhou. Base 311, established in 2005, plays a role in Beijing\u2019s \u201cThree Warfares\u201d strategy, focusing on public opinion, psychological warfare, and legal warfare against Taiwan, as reported by CNN.<\/p>\n
Strategies discussed include amplifying narratives that frame the election as a \u201cchoice between war and peace,\u201d blaming the DPP for tensions, and portraying DPP candidates as \u201cdiehard Taiwan separatists.\u201d Social media posts targeting DPP candidate Lai\u2019s running mate, Hsiao Bi-khim, have increased, with false allegations and accusations of being a \u201cdiehard separatist.\u201d \u201cThey hope that the party they dislike will lose the election,\u201d the Taiwanese official said, referring to the DPP, which has prioritised elevating Taipei\u2019s ties with Washington since taking power in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have repeatedly attempted to remind voters that this election is a choice between peace and war and that one of the tickets is comprised of separatists,\u201d CNN quoted the official as saying. China\u2019s Communist Party, committed to eventual reunification with Taiwan, has maintained a forceful stance, while most Taiwanese desire to remain independent. The DPP sees Taiwan as a de facto sovereign nation, a viewpoint that angers Beijing. In the lead-up to Taiwan\u2019s first direct presidential election in 1996, Beijing employed a confrontational tactic by launching missiles towards the island to dissuade voters from supporting a candidate advocating for Taiwan\u2019s distinct identity from China. However, this strategy backfired as the candidate, Lee Teng-hui, secured a resounding victory.<\/p>\n
Subsequently, China adopted a different approach. Taiwanese authorities and experts have accused Beijing of employing tactics such as disseminating disinformation on social media, clandestinely financing election campaigns and media entities, and leveraging investments in Taiwanese businesses with ties to mainland China. In 2019, just weeks before Taiwan\u2019s most recent presidential and legislative elections, the island\u2019s legislature enacted the Anti-Infiltration Law. This legislation aims to address legal gaps by prohibiting any foreign entity, particularly China, from making political donations, spreading misinformation, organising campaign events, or engaging in any form of interference in Taiwanese elections, CNN reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China has escalated its interference in Taiwan\u2019s upcoming presidential election, with a top Chinese leader urging officials to enhance effectiveness\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":16527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[158,4684,101,165,4682,4683,163],"class_list":["post-16526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-china","tag-hsiao-bi-khim","tag-joe-biden","tag-taiwan","tag-taiwanese-presidential-elections","tag-wang-huning","tag-xi-jinping"],"reading_time":"4 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}