{Editor’s Note: Wu Guoguang is presently a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University, affiliated with the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI). Continue reading
Reports
Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized
{Editor’s Note: In a recent article titled “U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized” published on Radio Free Asia, Continue reading
Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”
{Editor’s Note: On each of the three consecutive days March 17th through March 19th, Xinhua News Agency published a commentary criticizing the U.S. from angles of ideology, image, and leadership, respectively. Continue reading
Hong Kong Political Commentator: Xi Jinping and the CCP are Inseparable
{Editor’s Notes: Yan Chunguo, also known as NGAN, Shun-kau (颜纯钩), is a Hong Kong-based writer who grew up in China and participated in the Culture Revolution. He recently wrote an article expressing his view that Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are inseparable. Continue reading
Tsinghua Professor’s Analysis of China’s Economy
{Editor’s Notes: “The Qianhai Entrepreneurs Summit 2023” was held in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province on April 20 and 21. Continue reading
PLA: Cognitive Warfare Has Entered the Era of Combat for Brain Control
{Editor’s Notes: On June 2, 2020. Qiushi Magazine, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) leading theoretical journal on communism and governance, republished an article Continue reading
China’s New Cognitive War against Taiwan
Epoch Times reported that Beijing has adopted new cognitive warfare tactics against Taiwan. In the past it used to directly or indirectly buy Taiwan’s major media including newspaper, television, and radios to spread its message. Now, however, it has switched to using Internet media, such as TikTok, YouTube, and influential webcast hosts.
One tactic is to release fake news via its controlled Taiwanese media, causing other Taiwanese media who want to keep up on news reporting but do not verify the validity of news to follow up on the fake topic. China has established a “Public Opinion Control Center” inside its military and has a 2 million strong “Internet army” (people who monitor the Internet posting and post propaganda or fake news on the Internet). This can stir up issues or debates in Taiwan media that can lead to conflicts and divisions among the Taiwanese people.
Beijing also provides scripts to people who have their own (news or other topic) channels on the Internet. Those people will replace those words commonly used in the mainland but which are uncommon in Taiwan with those commonly used in Taiwan, to make it appear to have been “created in Taiwan.”
For webcasts, China’s “Public Opinion Control Center” can arrange a mass Chinese “Internet Army” (say 100,000 people) to listen to a Taiwanese webcaster and each to pay the webcaster a small amount of money to influence the webasterc. Collectively however, the webcaster receives a large amount of money and it is hard to trace the money source.
Source: Epoch Times, June 7, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/6/7/n14011845.htm
The CCP Uses Celebrities to Promote Its Messages
Epoch Times reported that two professors at the University of Richmond, Dan Chen and Gengsong Gao, published an article to expose the CCP’s tactic in sending its official messages via celebrities, including some Taiwanese entertainment stars.
Their study found that 85 percent of the top 218 celebrities in China re-posted the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) official messages on their social media account at least once over a six-month period in the second half of 2021.
On August 2, the day when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan, the CCP’s mouthpiece CCTV sent out a post on Weibo, a Chinese-owned Twitter-like social media platform, with the message “There is only one China in the World” statement. Within hours, Chinese celebrities re-posted this message on their extensive networks of followers, including Xie Na (谢娜), a 41-year-old popular TV host and actress who posted it for her 128 million followers on Weibo, and Jackson Yee (易烊千玺), a 22-year-old singer, dancer and actor ranked the No.1 celebrity in Forbes’ 2021 Chinese Celebrity List. He posted it for Taiwan celebrities conducting business in mainland China, such as Chen Qiaoen (陈乔恩) and Wu Qilong (吴奇隆), and also re-tweeted this message, about a day later.
One celebrity news outlet listed more than 20 Taiwan celebrities who reposted the “Only one China in the World and he praised them for “fulfilling their responsibility to voice political support.” It also listed 11 Taiwan celebrities who did not retweet the message and suggested that fans will judge them accordingly.
Fans and media in China harassed and criticized those Taiwan celebrities who did not express that they lined up with the CCP’s position, including a well-known Taiwan singer Hebe Tien (田馥甄) who has 13 million followers on Weibo.
In addition to using the fans to “teach” the celebrities, the CCP can also directly punish the celebrities. In 2014, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued a notice to require all broadcasting platforms to block “tainted artists” – celebrities who engage in illegal behavior or actions that are illegal, indecent, or politically incorrect.
This practice forced many celebrities to endorse the official lines to make themselves safe. Also, the state-endorsed celebrities have better opportunities to perform on state televisions or in state-sponsored films and TV shows.
Source: Epoch Times, October 1, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/10/1/n13836744.htm