Political tensions between China and Taiwan have escalated following China’s accusations that Taiwan orchestrated cyberattacks on the country, allegedly backed by the Taiwanese military.
Political analysts suggest that this tactic employed by China is a textbook strategy previously utilised by Russia to distract its populace from an unpopular recent law Central News Agency Taiwan (CNA) reported.
On September 23, China’s Ministry of State Security (CMSS) accused the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defence (MND) of funding hackers known as Anonymous 64. The group reportedly collaborates with the MND to infiltrate and seize control of websites, electronic billboards, and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong, and Macau, according to a report by CNA.
However, an analysis published by the Institute for National Defence and Security Research (INDSR), a think tank associated with the MND and authored by policy analyst Tseng Min-Chen, argues that the accusation aims to divert attention from the bill recently passed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to increase the legal retirement age.
This new legislation raises the retirement age from 60 to 63 for male workers, from 50 to 55 for female workers, and from 55 to 58 for female executives over the age of 15.
According to CNA, this legislation has sparked significant discontent among the Chinese public. The report claims that “China’s accusation was directly from Russia’s cognitive warfare playbook, which centres on ‘four Ds’ – ‘distract’ attention, ‘distort’ facts, ‘dismiss’ the opponent, and ‘dismay’ the intended audience.”
Referencing the INDSR analysis, Tseng also questioned why the Chinese government had remained silent on the matter despite claiming that the suspicious activities attributed to the Taiwanese group had begun in 2017 with the establishment of the MND’s Information, Communications, and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM).
CNA reported that through these questionable tactics, China attempts to obscure its own status as a hub of hackers with malicious intent. Tseng emphasised that the Taiwanese government should devise a response to counter China’s cognitive warfare.