West studies Beijing’s disinformation campaign in Taiwan looking for clues into its cyber playbook
- Beijing employs many instruments to nudge Taiwanese voters into supporting pro-Chinese candidates under its long-term goal of reclaiming the island
- ‘If you want to understand what Russia is doing, you watch Ukraine. If you want to understand what China’s doing, you watch Taiwan,’ says a cybersecurity expert
“We have defence-sector customers around the world and there’s definitely broad interest,” said Ben Read, senior manager of cyberespionage analysis at US cybersecurity firm FireEye. “Taiwan is not seen by China as foreign, it’s more of a domestic focus. So they feel they have a freer hand. It means they’ll display capabilities that they wouldn’t display elsewhere. It’s an early place where stuff shows up.”
Beijing’s skill in hacking and using false news stories, bots and falsified social media accounts to undercut adversaries and spread disinformation puts it slightly behind global leaders Russia and the United States but ahead of Iran and North Korea, experts say.
Chinese government cyber units allegedly focused on Taiwan and Hong Kong are China’s best, while those focused on Southeast Asia and elsewhere tend to be “more persistent than skilled,” said Read. This reflects rather mundane bureaucratic issues of staffing and budgets behind the shadowy screen reflecting China’s strategic priorities, he added.
Analysing Beijing’s tools, tactics and effectiveness won’t stop with Taiwan’s election, given that it often takes months to tease out what happened, as seen with Russian interference in the 2016 US election, cybersecurity experts say.