DPP exploit Taiwan youths through cognitive warfare tactics

A recent documentary released by a popular Taiwan internet influencer misrepresenting how the mainland influences Taiwan opinions is a poorly orchestrated scheme by the Democratic Progressive Party to manipulate cognitive warfare, a Chinese mainland spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks during a conference in Beijing after a video was created by YouTuber "Pa Chiung" and posted last week.

In the video, Taiwan rapper Chen Po-yuan claimed that the mainland influences Taiwan online influencers like himself as part of its "united front" efforts to shape opinions in Taiwan, sparking significant discussion in Taiwan.

Chen, from Taiwan, graduated from Huaqiao University in Quanzhou, Fujian province. Over the past few years, he has collaborated with mainland friends to create rap songs in the Minnan dialect praising various achievements of the mainland. The engaging lyrics attracted a significant number of shares and views of the video online.

Zhu said that an increasing number of Taiwan compatriots are sharing their observations and experiences of traveling, visiting friends and engaging in exchanges in the mainland through online platforms.

This effectively shatters the deliberate "information cocoon" created by DPP authorities and their nurtured internet army, which has led to them feeling panicked and intensifying various means of suppression and intimidation, she said.

"They falsely accuse the mainland of 'buying off' Taiwan internet celebrities and continuously engaging in malicious hype and defamation of the mainland," she added.

Cross-Strait exchanges will not be severed. The participation of over three million Taiwan people in exchanges this year in the mainland fully demonstrates this fact, Zhu said.

The DPP authorities manipulating cognitive warfare through a few Taiwan youths to incite cross-Strait confrontation in an attempt to deter exchanges will not succeed, she said.