Last year Taiwanese President Ts’ai Ing-wen warned of rampant Chinese interference in the country’s elections through the dissemination of “fake news” (假消).

Now Taiwan’s National Security Bureau has revealed that Beijing is working together with Taiwanese media outlets to spread Beijing’s propaganda.

Legislative Yuan, Taiwan (image by Jiang via Wikimedia Commons)

On May 2 the deputy director of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau Ch’en Wen-fan (陳文凡) testified before the Foreign and National Defense Committee of the Legislative Yuan (立法院外交及國防委員會) , Taiwan’s legislative branch.

Ch’en testified that in Taiwan there are “media collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” (中共同路媒體, literally “media walking the same way as the CCP”).

Ch’en said that media collaborating with the CCP are “one of the sources of fake news.” They include print media, internet media as well as online celebrities.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Luo Chih-cheng (羅致政) asked whether Ch’en had heard of Taiwanese media sending content to Beijing for approval.

“I have heard of it,” Ch’en initially said. After being pressured by Luo, Ch’en revealed: “Recently we have indeed seized intelligence to that effect.”

Luo further asked Ch’en whether he could provide a list of names of those media outlets. Ch’en refused, saying that it was not possible to publicly disclose it at the moment.

On April 6 Taiwanese Premier Ssu Chen-ch’ang (蘇貞昌) stated that China disseminates fake news as part of its campaign to annex Taiwan.

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