Dec. 14, 2023
Taipei, Taiwan
The narrative surrounding the elections in Taiwan is fragmenting and becoming more complex. Part of that heeds the predictions of some that technical advances and disinformation from China would make election interference harder to spot. But Taiwan is also putting in a multi-pronged effort to stem the flow of disinformation. Credit also goes to the younger generations of Taiwanese people whose media literacy and civics knowledge is higher than average, due to growing up in a free society, and becoming civically engaged in larger numbers in their youth.
And yet still the challenges facing the island nation keep growing. Although some domestic legislative voices contend that there is no provable election interference by China, the facts lie on the other side of the debate.
Legislator freezes part of MAC budget - Taipei Times
The escalation of cognitive warfare tactics on the part of China can be perceived on both sides of the Pacific. Internal government memos and security officials’ comments indicate that there is a “multi-front campaign of voting interference” going on, with significant escalations of “gray zone“ tactics, from disinformation to military patrols and flybys from China’s armed forces. Officials said that four incursions by the PLA Navy occurred last month alone that approached the maritime contiguous zone that is sensitive to Taiwan security.
AI has been proven to be used to create disinformation. Both deepfake video and massive social media coordination has been shown to exist only because of AI’s popular availability.
2024 Elections: Bureaus to be on disinformation alert - Taipei Times
US firm identifies online influence operation - Taipei Times
Taiwan already accounts for over 55% of cyber attack targets in the Asia Pacific region but that figure is only climbing higher until Taiwan can get its cyber security problem under control.
Taiwan seeks US help for cybersecurity at banks - Taipei Times
Perhaps the ongoing cooperation with the US can be of some help, but the US is also the target of an increasing number of Chinese cyber attacks. That was reported in the Washington Post recently, which noted that critical infrastructure of a civilian and military nature has been breached by Chinese hackers.
China’s cyber intrusions have hit ports and utilities, officials say - The Washington Post
On the whole, cyber attacks intending to shut down key infrastructure, and cyber attacks aimed at extracting information, are both a problem.
The nature of conflict is that it tends to deepen camaraderie among partisans of the same side. The US and Taiwan, we are in this together against authoritarianism. But the challenges that remain will test our flexibility and our cleverness.
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