TAIPEI, Taiwan – In January 2022, urgent messages lit up the phone of Chang Meng-tsung, a Taiwanese social media commentator known for promoting better relations across the Taiwan Strait.
“We’ve got to remove Lim!” insisted a Chinese reporter named Zhuo.
He was referring to Freddy Lim, a Taiwanese legislator known for his pro-independence stance whose seat was up for a recall vote after residents in his district petitioned for a snap election.
“Go after Lim today,” Zhuo urged.
Within hours, Chang was putting out a video attacking Lim.
Although to unsuspecting viewers, Chang’s video might have appeared to have been an unprompted political comment, but the target was clear.
Taiwan authorities revealed it was another calculated move in China’s intricate influence campaign targeting Taiwan when they arrested Chang and his wife in October last year on charges of colluding with a foreign government.
China officially denies conducting influence or propaganda campaigns against Taiwan, dismissing such accusations as unfounded and attributing them to Taiwan’s efforts to foster anti-China sentiment.
Chang’s connection with China
Chang, a radio host, had built a significant following discussing cross-strait relations.
As a spokesperson for the Chinese Unification Promotion Party, he advocated for Taiwan’s immediate unification with Mainland China under Communist Party leadership.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be united with the mainland, by force if necessary.
The democratic island has been self-governing since it effectively separated from mainland China in 1949 after the Chinese Civil War. The island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, firmly opposes unification with China and emphasizes Taiwan’s sovereignty, democracy, and the right to self-determination.
But behind Chang’s passionate political commentary lay a secret: he was being paid by China’s state media to spread its narratives about Taiwanese politics.
An investigation uncovered that Chang had received some 840,000 New Taiwan dollars (US$25,500) from the Beijing-controlled Fujian Radio Film and TV Group, or FJTV, between 2020 and 2023.
The workflow was simple but effective. Zhuo, working for FJTV’s online show EBC Apocalypse, would provide scripts. Chang would record videos following these scripts, and after FJTV’s review and approval, the money would flow into his bank account.
Chang appeared in a video call on a program with an anchor from Fujian TV in 2022.(Fujian TV)
Chang initially claimed his collaboration with FJTV began “by accident” during a COVID-19 quarantine stay in Shanghai, but digital breadcrumbs told a different story.
Facebook posts from as early as July 2021 showed Chang proudly attributing his 360 million views on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to his connection with EBC Apocalypse. A video from that period even captured him introducing “Little Zhuo” at a Fujian restaurant.
Their relationship deepened through WeChat conversations, where Zhuo celebrated Chang’s millions of views.
The role of Fujian province
The work with Chang wasn’t isolated. It was part of China’s broader strategy to influence Taiwanese public opinion through shaping what appears to be ordinary, ever-day media content.
Fujian province serves as the headquarters for these efforts, with China’s State Council explicitly acknowledging in 2023 that “Fujian plays a unique role in the grand strategy towards Taiwan.”
The province’s government openly admits to funding FJTV specifically to “subsidize the production and broadcasting of programs for Taiwan to strengthen propaganda efforts against the island.”
When Taiwan opened its doors to Chinese journalists in 2000, strict regulations made it difficult for mainland media outlets to establish a presence on the island. Everything changed in 2008 under President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration, which relaxed these rules – particularly benefiting media outlets from Fujian province.
Several Fujian outlets such as the Straits Herald edit and report large amounts of content from Taiwanese political talk shows (highlighted above) whose positions overlap with Beijing.(Douyin. Highlighting by AFCL)
While the policy aimed to normalize cross-strait media relations and promote press freedom, Chiu Chui-cheng, minister of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees cross-strait issues, paints a different picture today.
“[Fujian outlets] are a base for United Front media against Taiwan,” said Chiu, referring to the Chinese Communist Party organization tasked with spreading its influence, often abroad.
Chiu noted the Fujian outlets’ frequent violations of island regulations, from unauthorized street interviews to illegal studio operations.
Chiu is particularly concerned about how the Fujian networks’ talk shows exclusively feature pro-Beijing Taiwanese commentators who criticize U.S.-Taiwan relations and the ruling DPP.
“Fujian media have had a much higher rate of violations than other outlets,” he added.
Small-scale, large impact
But beyond traditional media, Beijing has developed a more subtle strategy: funding small-scale social media influencers like Chang Meng-tsung. Why would China invest in these seemingly minor players?
A veteran cross-strait media worker, speaking anonymously for security reasons, suggested this approach stems from China’s inability to control mainstream Taiwanese media, even those traditionally sympathetic to unification.
“My guess is that they also need to meet internal key performance indicators,” the source explained, referring to mainland officials.
Huang Jaw-nian, a professor at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University who studies Chinese media influence, said that while these influencers may have limited impact on public opinion, they serve two crucial purposes – producing content aligned with Beijing’s ideology and gathering intelligence about events in Taiwan.
More significantly, Huang said, maintaining a constant stream of pro-Beijing content could trigger developments favorable to China.
David Bandurski, director of the China Media Project, sees a less strategic explanation.
He said the grassroots approach might simply reflect poor coordination among Chinese regional media outlets, despite President Xi Jinping’s push for more consolidated propaganda efforts.
“They don’t always have a strategy …. It’s all lying and exaggerating. Subordinates have to tell their superiors they’re working hard and making progress,” said Bandurski.
“When Xi Jinping catches a cold, the whole province sneezes.”
Chinese officials assert that their actions are aimed at promoting peaceful reunification and strengthening cross-strait relations.
China’s Foreign Ministry has labeled Taiwan’s accusations of interference as “groundless” and has accused Taiwan’s leadership of trying to stir up hostility and gain domestic support.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang.
Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Dong Zhe, Alan Lu and Zhuang Jing for Asia Fact Check Lab.
On January 6, 2021, we watched on live television as Donald Trump and several Republican members of Congress incited a violent attempted overthrow of our democracy. This insurrection led to several deaths, including police officers who later died by suicide. When Joe Biden was sworn in as President in January 2021, Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress. Instead of using their time in power to pass a resolution or bill banning Trump and his supporters from holding office under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause” (Section 3), they held hearings that concluded with a report and a referral to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution. In the 2022 midterms, Democrats lost the House due to America’s worsening gerrymandering crisis.
Attorney General Merrick Garland waited two years to appoint Special Prosecutor Jack Smith. While some credit the Democrats’ January 6 committee for prompting Garland to take action, the reality is that both Democrats and Garland wasted valuable time. In the four years since January 6, 2021, no resolution or bill was passed in Congress to enforce the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment. Instead, a group of voters and legal experts attempted to bar Trump from the ballot in Colorado, leading to legal cases such as Trump v. Anderson. In early 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that states could not bar federal candidates, and that applying the 14th Amendment was up to Congress. So, why didn’t Democrats act in 2021 and 2022 when they had two years to enforce the U.S. Constitution?
We need an honest accounting of how an insurrectionist will be president just four years after leading a violent attempt to overthrow our democracy. Democrats deferred to Merrick Garland, who then deferred to Jack Smith, who ultimately dismissed his Trump cases in November 2024, after Trump won one of the closest elections in U.S. history. This election took place amid rampant disinformation and the consolidation of far-right media, including Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, turning it into a platform for (pro-Trump and Russia) disinformation–the largest in the world. At the same time, Republicans and the Supreme Court over the years undermined the Voting Rights Act and expanded voter ID laws–a modern day poll tax, disenfranchising 21 million Americans. As Andrea and Terrell discuss in this week’s episode, the 2024 election was neither free nor fair. The institutions meant to protect us failed. As Gaslit Nation has long warned, an unpunished attempted coup leads to a successful one. The institutionalists and controlled opposition who enabled this crisis don’t realize they are not safe either. Once a dictator is in power, no one can control them.
We also point out that George Orwell warned us about fascist bootlickers like Trump/Musk fanboy Lex Fridman, whose three-hour interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can be summed up by Orwell’s quote: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
Gaslit Nation officially calls on Lex Fridman to stop quoting Orwell on his podcast—Orwell would have hated you.
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The Republican Structural Advantage Republicans start every election cycle with structural advantages regardless of the issues and all the other factors that usually determine who wins elections. https://prospect.org/power/republican-structural-advantage/
How Gerrymandering Tilts the 2024 Race for the House Facebook LinkedIn Skewed maps give Republicans big advantages in 11 states, mostly in the South and Midwest.
Elon Musk Being Investigated for Violating Terms of “Top Secret” Clearance He has become a major liability for the government. https://futurism.com/elon-musk-investigated-violating-terms-top-secret-clearance
The lost year: How Merrick Garland’s Justice Department ran out of time prosecuting Trump for January 6 https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/06/politics/doj-trump-jan-6-riot/index.html
This content originally appeared on Gaslit Nation and was authored by Andrea Chalupa.
We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joshua Kaplan about his latest blockbuster article for ProPublica chronicling the rise of a “freelance vigilante” through the ranks of the right-wing militia movement in an effort to surveil and disrupt their operations. Kaplan’s source, a wilderness survival trainer named John Williams, says he went undercover after being shocked by the January 6 insurrection, when members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and other armed right-wing groups led the riot at the U.S. Capitol. “He’s an extraordinarily talented liar,” Kaplan says of Williams. “These militia guys loved him.” Williams would eventually gain the trust of senior leaders in Utah and beyond, collecting information that revealed a sprawling extremist movement with connections to law enforcement, lawmakers and more. Kaplan says Williams’s infiltration revealed the militia movement is surging across the country, despite the failed 2021 insurrection. Now with Donald Trump promising to pardon many of the Capitol riot participants, this same movement appears set to expand even further over the next few years. “The ramifications could be massive,” says Kaplan. “They have the potential to trigger a renaissance for militant extremists.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
TAEPEI, Taiwan – In the lead-up to Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election, an obscure news outlet called Fingermedia published what seemed like just another opinion poll.
The December 2023 poll claimed a stunning reversal: opposition Kuomintang candidates, Hou Yu-ih and Jaw Shaw-kong, had suddenly overtaken the ruling Democratic Progressive Party candidate Lai Ching-te in the presidential race.
Some suspected that something wasn’t quite right. For a start, the poll’s methods were unprofessional, but what they didn’t know was that the polling would unravel into a complex tale of cross-strait intrigue and attempted election manipulation.
Poll-rigging case
Weeks later, Taiwanese police arrested two men: Su Yun-hwa, a retired professor who conducted the poll, and Lin Hsien-yuan, a reporter with extensive experience covering cross-strait relations. What followed was a gripping investigation that unraveled a clandestine network with direct links to mainland China.
The story began in April 2023, when Lin and Su traveled to the Chinese city of Xiamen at the invitation of Lin Jingdong, a committee member of a media outlet called The Straits Herald.
Upon returning, Lin Hsien-yuan established the news platform Fingermedia and arranged for Su to conduct polls during the presidential election race, officially for free although later an indictment showed that Lin had a secret arrangement to pay Su 1.5 million New Taiwanese dollars (US$46,186) in 10 installments, disguised as loan repayments.
What happened next was revealed through WeChat messages presented during a police investigation. Lin Hsien-yuan admitted to manipulating poll numbers multiple times, first on his own initiative and later at the encouragement of his mainland contacts.
“The first change was my own idea because the gap was relatively big, while Lin Jingdong asked me the second and third times,” Lin Hsien-yuan testified.
“I was pressured and encouraged to change and adjust the poll results … because Lin Jingdong and her colleagues also supported Hou and Jaw.”
This photo illustration taken on December 22, 2023 shows a user looking at news content on the social media site Facebook in Taipei.(I-Hwa Cheng/AFP)
In one exchange, Lin Hsien-yuan texted “+3,” referring to a polling tally. After the discussion, Lin Jingdong responded that they should “add 2 to Hou and Jaw” and shared the altered results.
“Good work,” Lin Jingdong said.
“Can I release it tomorrow?” Lin Hsien-yuan asked.
“Whenever you’re ready,” came the reply.
The prosecution uncovered that Chinese contacts had transferred more than 130,000 Chinese yuan (US$17,848) to Lin Hsien-yuan through the Chinese messenger WeChat and mainland bank accounts. While he claimed the money was for purchasing teapots, presenting receipts as evidence, the amounts didn’t match up.
Prosecution ‘too lenient’
Though the poll came from an obscure outlet, it gained significant traction when reposted on Yahoo! News and in other mainstream Taiwanese media.
“Once the article hits Yahoo or LINE TODAY, you’ll trust it,” said Richy Li, a former journalist and professor at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, referring to a news board on the LINE messaging app.
Illustration(AFCL)
The case concluded in August 2024 with prison sentences for both men: eight months for Lin Hsien-yuan and four months for Su, which can be converted into fines.
However, the judge’s ruling that they hadn’t worked under the direct guidance of a hostile government sparked controversy, with the prosecution appealing the verdict for being “too lenient.”
“How can this be indirect?” questioned Lo Cheng Chung, a law professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. “In China, direct or indirect doesn’t matter, it’s still influence.”
Chiu Chui-cheng, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees cross-strait affairs, sees the case as part of a broader strategy targeting specific demographics: malleable youth, disgruntled lower-middle-class citizens and slightly more conservative residents in the island’s south and center.
Taiwan said accepting funds or instructions from China to spread communist propaganda may violate national security laws, which prohibit establishing, funding or developing organizations on behalf of foreign countries and mainland China or any entities or individuals they may dispatch or control.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. The democratic island has been self-governing since it effectively separated from mainland China in 1949 after the Chinese Civil War.
Beijing has long faced accusations of using sophisticated propaganda to sway public opinion in the democratic island.
“I feel that [China’s] strategy against Taiwan here is trying to use a match to burn a house,” he told AFCL.
A photo illustration shows newspapers being delivered in the sidebag of a motorcycle with a front page photograph of Taiwan’s former president Tsai Ing-wen.(Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP)
In the past, regional Taiwanese media outlets have frequently visited mainland China and engaged in “business collaboration.”
As Chiu noted, China knows well that running and sustaining regional media in Taiwan has been challenging, so it tends to target such small or regional media for its influence campaigns. Even though the outlets may typically attract little attention in Taiwan, they can play a significant role during critical moments like presidential elections.
“It’s important to keep exposing Chinese disinformation campaigns and ill intent toward Taiwan,” Chiu said. “Seeing how [Beijing] attempts to infiltrate and create chaos allows citizens to know their intent and prepare a counterattack.”
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang.
Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Zhuang Jing, Dong Zhe and Alan Lu for Asia Fact Check Lab.
“The killing of Mohamed Al-Maqri highlights the extreme dangers Yemeni journalists face while reporting from one of the world’s perilous conflict zones. Enforced disappearances continue to endanger their lives,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator. “CPJ demands that those responsible for Al-Maqri’s killing be held accountable. It is long overdue for all factions in Yemen to immediately end the abhorrent practice of subjecting journalists to years of enforced disappearance.”
Al-Maqri, a correspondent for television channel Yemen Today, was abducted while covering an anti-AQAP protest in Al-Mukalla, the capital of the southern governorate Hadhramaut. The AQAP, the Yemeni branch of the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda, had subjected him to enforced disappearance since October 12, 2015.
At least two other Yemeni journalists are currently subjected to enforced disappearance, a practice defined as state-sponsored abduction followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person’s fate or whereabouts.
Waheed al-Sufi, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Al-Arabiya, has been missing since April 2015 and is believed to be held by the Houthi movement. Naseh Shaker was last heard from on November 19, 2024, and is believed to be held by the Southern Transitional Council.
We continue to discuss the new HBO Original film Surveilled and explore the film’s investigation of high-tech spyware firms with journalist Ronan Farrow and director Matthew O’Neill. We focus on the influence of the Israeli military in the development of some of the most widely used versions of these surveillance technologies, which in many cases are first tested on Palestinians and used to enforce Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and on the potential expansion of domestic U.S. surveillance under a second Trump administration. Ever-increasing surveillance is “dangerous for democracy,” says Farrow. “We’re making and selling a weapon that is largely unregulated.” As O’Neill emphasizes, “We could all be caught up.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Across Asia, communities welcomed 2025 with spectacular fireworks shows, special events and cheering crowds.
Fireworks light up the sky over Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong on Jan. 1, 2025.(MAY JAMES, May James/AFP)Dancers perform during the “Celebrating Cambodia” event in front of Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Dec. 31, 2024.(Heng Sinith, Heng Sinith, Heng Sinith, Heng Sinith, Heng Sinith/AP)Residents watch fireworks at Ancol Beach in Jakarta on Jan. 1, 2025.(Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP)People gesture to make hearts at the Bosingak pavilion in central Seoul on Jan. 1, 2025.(Jung Yeon-je/AFP)Fireworks mark the New Year in Bangkok on Jan. 1, 2025.(Patipat Janthong, Patipat Janthong/Reuters)A woman watches the fireworks at the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Dec. 31, 2024.(Andy Wong, Andy Wong/AP)Fireworks blast out from the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei on Jan. 1, 2025.(ChiangYing-ying, Chiang Ying-ying, Chiang Ying-ying, Chiang Ying-ying/AP)Ethnic Karen people gather at the National Races Village in Yangon for their traditional New Year’s celebration Dec. 30, 2024.(Thein Zaw, Thein Zaw, Thein Zaw/AP)Two boys play in front of a billboard welcoming the New Year 2025 in Ho Chi Minh on Dec.31, 2024.(Hau Dinh/AP)
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Paul Nelson.
