BEIJING, 13 January. - (ANA) - China continues to conduct cognitive warfare against Taiwan, hyping up selected important current events in Taiwan to achieve its strategic goals of "exacerbating internal divisions within Taiwan," "weakening Taiwanese people's will to resist the enemy," "influencing allies' willingness to support Taiwan," and "winning support for China's stance." The NSB has compiled a report titled "Analysis of China's Cognitive Warfare Tactics Against Taiwan in 2025," to help the general public be aware of China's influence operations and their threats to democratic society.

 

Following the setting of narrative themes and tones, China's party, state, and military systems mobilize collaborative organizations, including information technology (IT) companies, marketing firms, and internet water army groups, to utilize the five major tactics to disseminate disinformation targeting audiences in Taiwan.

 

Regarding "using data to analyze Taiwan's social dynamics," the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), Ministry of State Security, Political Work Department under the People's Liberation Army (PLA) employ Chinese IT companies such as Golaxy, Meiya Pico, and Warming High-Tech and utilize web crawler technology to collect personal data of Taiwan's political figures, legislators, and opinion leaders, including their interpersonal connections and stances toward China. These Chinese IT companies also compile information on polling data and candidates' volume on social media, to launch targeted propaganda campaigns toward Taiwan and actions against specific individuals.

 

As for "establishing diversified channels to disseminate disinformation," Central Publicity Department and Ministry of Public Security (MPS) utilize marketing companies such as Haixunshe, Haimai, and Huya to create fake websites. Those sites masquerade as international media outlets such as "Aisa Korea" and "Austria Weekly" and act in concert to spread narratives aligned with China's official stances. Moreover, Beijing has supported Chinese marketing company Wubianjie Group in operating content farms via Facebook fan pages that tend to post sensational articles to attract clicks. The company has also established soft-content channels on platforms such as Threads and X, and then pivoted to political posts, aiming to influence Taiwanese public perception.

 

In terms of "employing inauthentic accounts to manipulate public opinion," Dragonbridge, an internet water army employed by the MPS, conducts influence operations in more than 20 languages across over 180 social media platforms worldwide. In addition, CAC, United Front Work Department, and PLA's Cyberspace Force have tasked Chinese IT companies such as Zhongkedianji, Beijing Xingguang, and OneSight with setting up a database for netizens and developing automated programs managing a great quantity of bot accounts for disinformation spreading, aiming to influence targeted audiences and manipulate public opinion.

 

In respect to "using AI to generate highly realistic videos," IT enterprises such as China North Industries Group Corporation Limited have developed AI models and intelligent guidance systems aiming to concurrently conduct public-opinion data collection, automated video generation, and precise delivery to targeted audiences. These systems can produce and disseminate disinformation in various forms. Moreover, China has commissioned Chinese IT companies such as Magic Data and iFlytek to develop intelligent voice systems and place advertisements on recruitment websites, aiming to entice unwitting Taiwanese users to submit online recordings. It is possible that these voice datasets can be used to clone voices mimicking Taiwanese accents, thereby enhancing the authenticity of AI-generated video content.

 

In regard to "conducting cyber intrusions to hijack Taiwanese users' accounts," Chinese cyber army hijacked over a dozen PTT accounts during China's military exercise against Taiwan in April 2025. It hacked into IoT devices and rented overseas servers as proxies to hype up disinformation such as "China has blockaded Taiwan's natural-gas shipments" and "Chinese warships have entered Taiwan's 24-nautical-mile zone."

 

In 2025, Taiwan's national intelligence community recorded over 45,000 sets of inauthentic accounts and over 2.314 million pieces of disinformation. Over 3,200 pieces of disinformation were reported to relevant government agencies, allowing Taiwan's government to tackle China's cognitive warfare in real time.

 

Government agencies and prominent think tanks in the US, EU, Australia, and France all issued reports to warn against China's manipulation of information and relevant threats. Taiwan is situated at the forefront of international efforts to counter China's cognitive warfare. Therefore, in 2025, the NSB engaged in over 80 security dialogues and intelligence conferences with international friends and allies, so as to expand the cooperative network in the democratic community to counter China's cognitive warfare.

 

The NSB will continue to stay abreast of China's tactics of cognitive warfare against Taiwan. In addition to implementing the reporting and response mechanism across government apparatuses, the NSB will step up efforts to cooperate with third-party fact-checking organizations and social media platform operators, urging them to duly disclose and take down false information. By doing so, the NSB aims to prevent hostile foreign forces from conducting influence operations against Taiwan, thereby ensuring an unmanipulated public opinion arena in Taiwan. - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/13 January 2026 - - -