9.30 the world in brief
With hours to spare, President Joe Biden signed a 45-day stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown in America on October 1st. The bill earlier passed the Democrat-led Senate. Kevin McCarthy, the beleaguered Republican speaker, had to rely on Democratic votes to get the bill through the House, weakening his position in his own caucus. The bill provides money for disaster relief, but none of the aid for Ukraine that Democrats had sought. The scrambling follows weeks during which hard-right Republican congressmen, seeking swingeing spending cuts, had blocked efforts to fund the government.
Turkey’s government said terrorists detonated an explosive outside a government building in the capital, Ankara, close to the parliament where Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president, was due to speak. One bomber died in the blast; police shot a second. It is not clear who was behind the violence. Kurdish militants and Islamic State have carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.
Smer, a pro-Russian party led by Robert Fico, a former prime minister, won Slovakia’s election. With almost all ballots counted, Smer took 24% of the vote. Earlier, exit polls suggested Progressive Slovakia, a liberal party, had won the election, but it took around 17% of the vote. Smer will now probably attempt to form a coalition with other, smaller parties.
Mohamed Muizzu, a pro-China opposition leader, defeated Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the incumbent, in a presidential election in the Maldives. After coming to power in 2018, Mr Solih strengthened the Maldives’ ties with India while distancing the country from Chinese investors. Mr Muizzu, the mayor of Male, the country’s capital, has vowed to limit India’s influence in the Maldives.
Ukraine hosted an international defence industry conference in an attempt to bolster local weapons production for its counter-offensive against Russia. Speaking at the forum in Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky, the president, said that he aims to make Ukraine a “large military hub”, prioritising air defence and de-mining technologies. Around 250 weapons producers from 30 countries attended.
Azerbaijan said it would take “retaliatory measures” against Armenia, after one of its soldiers was allegedly killed by a sniper close to the border between the two countries. Tensions are running high after Azerbaijan took control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave which had been run by Armenian separatists for three decades, last week. Armenia’s government has said that more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians have fled to the country from Nagorno-Karabakh, representing the vast majority of its population.
“No one is safe” from bedbugs in Paris, said France’s government. Clément Beaune, the transport minister, said the government would act to “reassure and protect” Parisians from a widespread infestation of the blood-sucking pests. The highly mobile bugs have been spotted on various forms of public transport. Emmanuel Grégoire, the deputy mayor, warned that previous campaigns against bedbugs had failed to prevent them from breaching the centre of the capital.
Word of the day: yi mei lun, a moniker from Taiwan used to describe the “US scepticism” narrative being spread by disinformation from China. Read the full story.
Turkey’s government said terrorists detonated an explosive outside a government building in the capital, Ankara, close to the parliament where Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president, was due to speak. One bomber died in the blast; police shot a second. It is not clear who was behind the violence. Kurdish militants and Islamic State have carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.
Smer, a pro-Russian party led by Robert Fico, a former prime minister, won Slovakia’s election. With almost all ballots counted, Smer took 24% of the vote. Earlier, exit polls suggested Progressive Slovakia, a liberal party, had won the election, but it took around 17% of the vote. Smer will now probably attempt to form a coalition with other, smaller parties.
Mohamed Muizzu, a pro-China opposition leader, defeated Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the incumbent, in a presidential election in the Maldives. After coming to power in 2018, Mr Solih strengthened the Maldives’ ties with India while distancing the country from Chinese investors. Mr Muizzu, the mayor of Male, the country’s capital, has vowed to limit India’s influence in the Maldives.
Ukraine hosted an international defence industry conference in an attempt to bolster local weapons production for its counter-offensive against Russia. Speaking at the forum in Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky, the president, said that he aims to make Ukraine a “large military hub”, prioritising air defence and de-mining technologies. Around 250 weapons producers from 30 countries attended.
Azerbaijan said it would take “retaliatory measures” against Armenia, after one of its soldiers was allegedly killed by a sniper close to the border between the two countries. Tensions are running high after Azerbaijan took control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave which had been run by Armenian separatists for three decades, last week. Armenia’s government has said that more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians have fled to the country from Nagorno-Karabakh, representing the vast majority of its population.
“No one is safe” from bedbugs in Paris, said France’s government. Clément Beaune, the transport minister, said the government would act to “reassure and protect” Parisians from a widespread infestation of the blood-sucking pests. The highly mobile bugs have been spotted on various forms of public transport. Emmanuel Grégoire, the deputy mayor, warned that previous campaigns against bedbugs had failed to prevent them from breaching the centre of the capital.
Word of the day: yi mei lun, a moniker from Taiwan used to describe the “US scepticism” narrative being spread by disinformation from China. Read the full story.
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Asia | Strait up lies
China is flooding Taiwan with disinformation
With elections looming, China wants Taiwanese voters to think America is their greatest threat
Chinese agent in a room creating anti-US disinformation targeting Taiwan.
image: xinmei liu
Sep 26th 2023 | TAIPEI
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Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.
In july one of Taiwan’s top newspapers, United Daily News, published a story based on supposedly leaked minutes from a secret government meeting. America had asked Taiwan to make biological weapons at a lab run by the island’s defence ministry, the report claimed. Taiwanese and American officials denied it. The allegedly leaked minutes, it transpired, were not written in the usual style of Taiwanese government records. They were filled with official-sounding phrases that are used in mainland China, but not in Taiwan.
This was probably Chinese disinformation, Taiwanese officials said. Yet the story spread to Taiwanese talk shows and influencers. It soon evolved into a wilder claim: Taiwan was going to collect 150,000 samples of Taiwanese blood and hand them to the Americans, so they could develop a virus to kill Chinese people.
This sort of disinformation is so widespread in Taiwan that analysts have given it a moniker: yi mei lun, or the “us scepticism” narrative. Its spread is becoming a major worry for Taiwan’s government and civil society in the run-up to a hugely important presidential election next January. Taiwanese voters will in effect be asked to decide whether Taiwan should remain aligned with America in strengthening deterrence against a possible Chinese invasion, or should move towards building ties with China. The opposition Kuomintang has called the vote a choice between “war and peace”, implying that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s hostility towards China will provoke it to attack. Chinese state actors have backed that framing, spreading narratives that portray America, not China, as the island’s biggest threat. Much of the disinformation is intended to reinforce that false message.
Lo Ping-chen, a cabinet minister who since 2018 has been leading a government task force against disinformation, says it has “severely infiltrated” Taiwan’s society. “We used to think there was more during election season. But it’s now become normalised. It happens every day.” Most Taiwanese voters have little idea of this. A recent survey by Doublethink Lab, a Taiwanese group that studies disinformation, found that less than 20% of respondents believed the false information spread in Taiwan during elections came from abroad. Puma Shen, who heads Doublethink Lab, worries about the one-fifth of voters who are not aligned with any party and could be a decisive bloc. “Even if only 15% of voters are truly affected by Chinese disinformation, it takes only 7% of voters to change the election results,” he says.
A recent study of us-scepticism narratives by the Information Environment Research Centre, a Taiwanese research group, found Chinese actors were helping to spread most of them. But more than half appeared to have Taiwanese origins. That suggests China is “piggybacking” on fears in Taiwanese society, says Chihhao Yu, the report’s author. He notes that many Taiwanese have an “orphan mentality”: they fear abandonment by outsiders because of Taiwan’s experience of losing American diplomatic recognition in the 1970s.
Chinese actors are exploiting those worries, just as Russian disinformation exploited America’s racial and cultural cracks to help Donald Trump in 2016. Chinese disinformation also echoes Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine, which claims America is behind the conflict (and is creating bioweapons in Ukrainian labs).
China has developed systematic means to make falsehoods trend in Taiwan, says Chien Yu-yen, a former journalist and author of a book about Chinese influence on Taiwan’s media. She points to a spurious claim that America “wants to blow up” tsmc, a Taiwanese chipmaker. It originated with a misleading video posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, which featured an American lawmaker appearing to discuss the possibility. The following morning, a Taiwanese newspaper published a story about the video. Opposition lawmakers and talk-show hosts whipped up outrage. “The journey from China’s Douyin to Taiwan’s mass media, videos, newspapers and television took less than half a day,” says Ms Chien. Chinese state media amplified the narrative, as if merely commenting from the outside on a Taiwanese debate.
Taiwanese officials believe that many of the Taiwanese launching us-scepticism untruths are “local collaborators” taking orders and payments from China. But that is hard to prove, because the suspected Chinese funding is probably funnelled through Taiwanese businesspeople or public-relations firms. Wang Kun-yi, a local commentator who frequently writes us-scepticism narratives for Chinese media and pro-China Taiwanese media, defends his work as a commercial enterprise. All journalists in Taiwan serve the bias of their newspapers’ bosses, says Mr Wang, who has worked for both pro-independence and pro-unification newspapers. “Everyone just treats it as a job,” he says. “It’s a tool to feed yourself.”
Taiwan has laws against foreign infiltration and election influence, but they are limited to cases of proven state-sponsored activity. It has additional laws against spreading wilful falsehood in broadcast media, but they do not cover print or digital outlets. In 2020 the government revoked the licence of cti News, a pro-China channel, citing repeated failures to verify information. cti simply moved online.
The case sparked accusations of censorship, which Taiwan wants to avoid. So the government has resorted to more liberal methods of fighting disinformation. It has tried to improve media literacy, provide faster official clarifications and promote fact-checking organisations. But such means cannot match the speed of Chinese propaganda. In August Meta, which owns Facebook, removed a network of more than 7,000 accounts, pages and groups that were spreading Chinese disinformation. But new accounts are easy to set up, a problem that will only accelerate with artificial intelligence, says Mr Lo.
Chinese disinformation has already distorted Taiwan’s public conversation. Will it move votes? Meta has noted that the Chinese disinformation network it removed was “high volume, low reach”, despite having a veneer of engagement designed to make the accounts look more popular than they were. Studies of Russian disinformation in America have found that it has little impact on voter preferences. Despite all the messaging in Chinese and Taiwanese media against the Democratic Progressive Party, its candidate, William Lai, is leading in the polls. And for all the scepticism about America, Taiwanese are even warier of China. A 2022 survey by Academia Sinica, a Taiwanese research institution, found 34% of respondents agreeing that America is a “credible” country. Only 9% said the same of China.
China is to blame. It recently surrounded Taiwan with warplanes and warships even as its ruling Communist Party unveiled an integration plan promising benefits to Taiwanese people living in Fujian, a southern province near the island. Most Taiwanese know where their real threat comes from. But China’s insidious efforts to mislead them are increasing. ■
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Strait up lies"
Asia
September 30th 2023
China is flooding Taiwan with disinformation
The world’s greatest toilet culture
South Korea’s opposition leader narrowly avoids arrest
Australians look set to reject new provisions for Aboriginal people
Narendra Modi wants a lot more women in Indian politics
Can a $12 phone get 300m illiterate Indians online?
India is testing America’s friendship
Living to 120: A special report on how to slow ageing
From the September 30th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
Share
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Asia | Strait up lies
China is flooding Taiwan with disinformation
With elections looming, China wants Taiwanese voters to think America is their greatest threat
Chinese agent in a room creating anti-US disinformation targeting Taiwan.
image: xinmei liu
Sep 26th 2023 | TAIPEI
Share
Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.
In july one of Taiwan’s top newspapers, United Daily News, published a story based on supposedly leaked minutes from a secret government meeting. America had asked Taiwan to make biological weapons at a lab run by the island’s defence ministry, the report claimed. Taiwanese and American officials denied it. The allegedly leaked minutes, it transpired, were not written in the usual style of Taiwanese government records. They were filled with official-sounding phrases that are used in mainland China, but not in Taiwan.
This was probably Chinese disinformation, Taiwanese officials said. Yet the story spread to Taiwanese talk shows and influencers. It soon evolved into a wilder claim: Taiwan was going to collect 150,000 samples of Taiwanese blood and hand them to the Americans, so they could develop a virus to kill Chinese people.
This sort of disinformation is so widespread in Taiwan that analysts have given it a moniker: yi mei lun, or the “us scepticism” narrative. Its spread is becoming a major worry for Taiwan’s government and civil society in the run-up to a hugely important presidential election next January. Taiwanese voters will in effect be asked to decide whether Taiwan should remain aligned with America in strengthening deterrence against a possible Chinese invasion, or should move towards building ties with China. The opposition Kuomintang has called the vote a choice between “war and peace”, implying that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s hostility towards China will provoke it to attack. Chinese state actors have backed that framing, spreading narratives that portray America, not China, as the island’s biggest threat. Much of the disinformation is intended to reinforce that false message.
Lo Ping-chen, a cabinet minister who since 2018 has been leading a government task force against disinformation, says it has “severely infiltrated” Taiwan’s society. “We used to think there was more during election season. But it’s now become normalised. It happens every day.” Most Taiwanese voters have little idea of this. A recent survey by Doublethink Lab, a Taiwanese group that studies disinformation, found that less than 20% of respondents believed the false information spread in Taiwan during elections came from abroad. Puma Shen, who heads Doublethink Lab, worries about the one-fifth of voters who are not aligned with any party and could be a decisive bloc. “Even if only 15% of voters are truly affected by Chinese disinformation, it takes only 7% of voters to change the election results,” he says.
A recent study of us-scepticism narratives by the Information Environment Research Centre, a Taiwanese research group, found Chinese actors were helping to spread most of them. But more than half appeared to have Taiwanese origins. That suggests China is “piggybacking” on fears in Taiwanese society, says Chihhao Yu, the report’s author. He notes that many Taiwanese have an “orphan mentality”: they fear abandonment by outsiders because of Taiwan’s experience of losing American diplomatic recognition in the 1970s.
Chinese actors are exploiting those worries, just as Russian disinformation exploited America’s racial and cultural cracks to help Donald Trump in 2016. Chinese disinformation also echoes Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine, which claims America is behind the conflict (and is creating bioweapons in Ukrainian labs).
China has developed systematic means to make falsehoods trend in Taiwan, says Chien Yu-yen, a former journalist and author of a book about Chinese influence on Taiwan’s media. She points to a spurious claim that America “wants to blow up” tsmc, a Taiwanese chipmaker. It originated with a misleading video posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, which featured an American lawmaker appearing to discuss the possibility. The following morning, a Taiwanese newspaper published a story about the video. Opposition lawmakers and talk-show hosts whipped up outrage. “The journey from China’s Douyin to Taiwan’s mass media, videos, newspapers and television took less than half a day,” says Ms Chien. Chinese state media amplified the narrative, as if merely commenting from the outside on a Taiwanese debate.
Taiwanese officials believe that many of the Taiwanese launching us-scepticism untruths are “local collaborators” taking orders and payments from China. But that is hard to prove, because the suspected Chinese funding is probably funnelled through Taiwanese businesspeople or public-relations firms. Wang Kun-yi, a local commentator who frequently writes us-scepticism narratives for Chinese media and pro-China Taiwanese media, defends his work as a commercial enterprise. All journalists in Taiwan serve the bias of their newspapers’ bosses, says Mr Wang, who has worked for both pro-independence and pro-unification newspapers. “Everyone just treats it as a job,” he says. “It’s a tool to feed yourself.”
Taiwan has laws against foreign infiltration and election influence, but they are limited to cases of proven state-sponsored activity. It has additional laws against spreading wilful falsehood in broadcast media, but they do not cover print or digital outlets. In 2020 the government revoked the licence of cti News, a pro-China channel, citing repeated failures to verify information. cti simply moved online.
The case sparked accusations of censorship, which Taiwan wants to avoid. So the government has resorted to more liberal methods of fighting disinformation. It has tried to improve media literacy, provide faster official clarifications and promote fact-checking organisations. But such means cannot match the speed of Chinese propaganda. In August Meta, which owns Facebook, removed a network of more than 7,000 accounts, pages and groups that were spreading Chinese disinformation. But new accounts are easy to set up, a problem that will only accelerate with artificial intelligence, says Mr Lo.
Chinese disinformation has already distorted Taiwan’s public conversation. Will it move votes? Meta has noted that the Chinese disinformation network it removed was “high volume, low reach”, despite having a veneer of engagement designed to make the accounts look more popular than they were. Studies of Russian disinformation in America have found that it has little impact on voter preferences. Despite all the messaging in Chinese and Taiwanese media against the Democratic Progressive Party, its candidate, William Lai, is leading in the polls. And for all the scepticism about America, Taiwanese are even warier of China. A 2022 survey by Academia Sinica, a Taiwanese research institution, found 34% of respondents agreeing that America is a “credible” country. Only 9% said the same of China.
China is to blame. It recently surrounded Taiwan with warplanes and warships even as its ruling Communist Party unveiled an integration plan promising benefits to Taiwanese people living in Fujian, a southern province near the island. Most Taiwanese know where their real threat comes from. But China’s insidious efforts to mislead them are increasing. ■
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Strait up lies"
Asia
September 30th 2023
China is flooding Taiwan with disinformation
The world’s greatest toilet culture
South Korea’s opposition leader narrowly avoids arrest
Australians look set to reject new provisions for Aboriginal people
Narendra Modi wants a lot more women in Indian politics
Can a $12 phone get 300m illiterate Indians online?
India is testing America’s friendship
Living to 120: A special report on how to slow ageing
From the September 30th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
Share
Reuse this content
THE ECONOMIST TODAY
Handpicked stories, in your inbox
A daily newsletter with the best of our journalism
example@email.com
Sign up
Yes, I agree to receive exclusive content, offers and updates to products and services from The Economist Group. I can change these preferences at any time.
More from Asia
The world’s greatest toilet culture
A fine German film director puts Japan’s spotless facilities in the spotlight
Australians look set to reject new provisions for Aboriginal people
Advocates of a constitutional “Voice” for Aboriginal people are facing defeat
Narendra Modi wants a lot more women in Indian politics
India’s female political representation is worse than Pakistan’s
Subscribe
Group subscriptions
Reuse our content
The Trust Project
Help and contact us
Keep updated
Published since September 1843 to take part in “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.”
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Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2023. All rights reserved.