Recently there has been a heated discussion in Taiwan about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) targeting Taiwan’s Internet celebrities so as to influence Taiwan youth and politics.
A well-known Taiwanese internet celebrity with millions of followers, “Porter King,” stated that the “Cross-Strait Youth Association of China” will sponsor 10 groups of Taiwanese Internet celebrities for free trips to mainland China this summer to film videos. Taiwanese artist Ho Yi-chi mentioned that she received an invitation from a Beijing-based film production company last week to participate in a short film project, and that the project was related to politics. The “Beijing Ciguang Film and Media Company” proposed a bold plan to “construct a new type of cross-strait relationship” by preparing to invite Taiwanese artists and internet celebrities to “form a party and participate in Taiwanese elections.” It plans to establish the “Taiwan Harmony Party (台湾拥和党).” The plan is to hold an inaugural meeting in Taipei in July 2024, with the goal of participating in the 2026 local and mayoral elections in Taiwan by leveraging the high popularity of these internet celebrities and artists. Their minimum goal is to win one mayor and ten councilors.
In February this year, the Financial Times reported that the CCP’s United Front Work Department began hosting Taiwanese youth for trips to mainland China, hoping they would start producing short videos for TikTok and YouTube. The goal was to “foster patriotism” among Taiwanese youth (loyal to mainland China) and to “encourage them to join efforts to promote cross-strait unification.”
On June 18, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said that, more so than military and economic threats posed by mainland China, “the biggest threat is cultural invasion.” He expressed his “hope that the public will strengthen their inner defenses.” He emphasized that “the government certainly respects freedom of speech and internet autonomy, but it is absolutely necessary to issue very clear warnings when appropriate.”
Source: BBC, June 20, 2024
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-69131401