Source: Patch One Knife
Writer/ Hu Yi knife
In response to the so-called "Chinese mainland military pressure," Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party authorities announced that they would submit a record defense budget for next year. In terms of amount, it increased to NT$415.1 billion, an increase of nearly 13% over 2022.
This has become the focus of media attention in the past two days.
However, there is a direction that many people overlook, and its role is very important.
That is, the US media broke the news that google and other large Internet technology companies in the United States and the West may "intervene" to help Taiwan fight a cognitive war, targeting the so-called "mainland false news".
Under the circumstance that military conflicts are unlikely to break out at present, cognitive warfare has become the forefront of the "Taiwan Strait game."
Does the addition of Internet platform technology giants such as Google and Facebook indicate that these large companies in the United States are likely to give up their "neutral" status?
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According to the Wall Street Journal, "due to the Chinese mainland's attempt to disrupt the psychology of the people on the island with information warfare and cognitive warfare, the DPP authorities have consolidated the defense line by strengthening fact-checking and other methods, and have also been supported by large technology companies such as Google."
The report also claims that the effectiveness of this approach is gradually attracting the attention of officials and network researchers in the United States and Europe.
After US House speaker Pelosi visited Taiwan Island earlier this month, despite repeated warnings from the Chinese side, the PLA took strong countermeasures, including test firing missiles, launching military exercises, and sending fighter jets to fly over the so-called "middle line of the Taiwan Strait." The huge gap in military strength has left the DPP authorities helpless.
However, the DPP authorities are doing their best to "put gold" on their faces. For example, the DPP authorities said they were guarding against Beijing's "more covert attacks" long before the Pelosi plane landed, that is, "spreading fear and disturbing people's minds with false information."
It seems to show that the DPP authorities and relevant departments have achieved good results in the field of cognitive warfare.
In fact, during a visit to Taiwan Island in July this year, former US Defense Secretary Esper discussed Taipei's countermeasures against fake news in the cognitive war with Tang Feng, Taiwan's "red man" -- Taiwan's "Executive Yuan" and "Digital Minister-designate" -- Tsai Ing-wen's "red man" and "executive minister-designate." Upon his return to the United States, Esper said the Taiwan approach "seems to be very effective and we are trying to bring back what we have learned."
Taiwan's military claimed that "more than 270 cases of untrue or misleading content were identified earlier in August, which is Beijing's attempt to use false information to demoralize the island and damage the credibility of the DPP government."
The DPP said that in the face of the fake news attack of the cognitive war, the first line of defense on the island is a group of non-profit fact-checking organizations that use tools developed by a number of technology companies to "closely contact government agencies on the island and identify and refute the fake news before it is widely disseminated."
Taiwan media gave an example, that is, after Pelosi ended his trip to Taiwan on August 3, the local communications software LINE user reported that the information circulated on the platform that "the mainland intends to fully evacuate relevant personnel from Taiwan Island before the 8th", because this action has the meaning that the mainland is about to attack Taiwan by force.
The information circulating at LINE seems to be the content broadcast by the anchor of Chinese mainland CCTV, and the screenshot of the subtitle "China's central government has decided to evacuate mainland compatriots in Taiwan" is marked below the screen. A fact-checking organization determined that this information was false by checking the CCTV footage.
In fact, posting similar fake messages on social media in order to win attention often occurs. A similar situation often occurs on the mainland side. However, the DPP authorities believe that this is a "gripper" for politicized operations, claiming that the person who posted the article is likely to be "a mainland woman."
As a result, this fake news was labeled by the DPP authorities as "the mainland launching a cognitive war against Taiwan."
More important is the follow-up operation.
After confirming that this was false news, the island authorities notified LINE, Google and Facebook (Facebook) offices in Taiwan. The Western internet tech companies then took steps to prevent the message from continuing to spread on their respective platforms.
This has also been publicized by the DPP authorities as "a case of a successful joint effort between a Western Internet platform company and the Taiwanese side."
In fact, these Western technology companies are cooperating with Taiwan to combat fake news, not to point to the so-called "cognitive warfare launched by Chinese mainland." In the latter half, the relevant departments of the DPP have forcibly "added drama" to themselves.
Google did announce recently that it had trained more than 110 officials, legislators and campaign personnel in Taiwan to use tools to combat fake news, such as reverse image search. Google's philanthropic group also donated $1 million last year to fund the Fact-Checking Center.
In addition, over the past three years, LINE has invested about $5 million to launch the "Digital Accountability Program", which includes warning suspicious content with public chatbots and building a database containing more than 50,000 audit files.
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Why did the DPP authorities exhaust all kinds of methods to highlight their ability to cope with the "cognitive war launched by the mainland"?
The main reason is that Tsai Ing-wen has regarded this field as a "special achievement" of her administration in recent years.
In particular, Tang Feng, who calls herself "genderless and non-partisan", has been regarded as a right-hand man by Tsai Ing-wen.
On August 26, Deutsche Welle published an interview with Tang Feng, Taiwan's "digital political commissar" who will take up his post as the newly established "Minister of Digital Development" by the DPP authorities on August 27. Tang Feng said in an interview with Deutsche Welle that Taiwan's biggest challenge in the digital age is "information and communication security."
As for Tang Feng, the mainland media have basically listed his nature, such as "Taiwan independence politician" or "head of the Green Camp Network Army." The Taiwan Net Army 1450, which we are familiar with, is said to have been planned and led by Tang Feng.
The Green Camp media has brought a lot of "aura" to Tang Feng, such as "high intelligence", "genius IT minister", etc. In an interview with "Deutsche Welle", Tang Feng also introduced the situation of "Taiwan's network army".
Tang Feng said that in the front line of Taiwan's information warfare and cognitive warfare launched in Chinese mainland, how to deal with disinformation from the mainland "has become one of the priorities after the establishment of the Ministry of Digital Development."
The "Zitong Electric Army" (that is, the "counter-network army" unit set up by Taiwan's defense department in response to the PLA's cyber threat) is indeed needed, because it is facing "mixed warfare." Tang Feng disclosed that the relevant budget is listed in Taiwan's defense department. The "Ministry of Digital Development" has nothing to do with it, nor does it have such a structure.
This obviously has to admit the existence of the "Taiwan Network Army" and at the same time deny any involvement with itself.
In the interview with Deutsche Welle, there is a trend worth noting, that is, when it comes to "from Taiwan to the European Union", how can democracy fight against the "digital iron curtain"? This is actually the entry point for the DPP authorities to play a greater role.
Tang Feng believes that information warfare and cognitive warfare are mostly psychological warfare, and "the fierce battlefield is in everyone's heart" to ensure that they will not "scare themselves." This is the most critical at present.
Taiwan's "Academia Sinica" recently published a research report in the Oxford University journal "Global Security Research" that the impact of cognitive warfare is quite complex, even if the brain does not accept false information, it will still increase the cost of brain cognitive processing, forming a negative impact, and young people who lack sufficient knowledge or interest in public affairs may be more dependent on external information and vulnerable.
Scholars from the "Academia Sinica" said that the mainland's mode of cognitive warfare against Taiwan has shown "diversified" development.
The article claims that "in the past, when the mainland's economic development was strong, it was good at using positive propaganda, including proposing a number of inducements and measures to promote cross-strait exchanges to attract the people of Taiwan"; In recent years, it has gradually turned into "the mobilization of negative emotions," such as the use of fake news to divide the Taiwan people and the prohibition of the import of Taiwan agricultural products, which are "all kinds of cognitive warfare against Taiwan's warnings and disturbances."
Scholars of the "Academia Sinica" have said that the Internet has become an important means of cognitive warfare on the mainland. In fact, it is precisely the "Taiwan Network Army" that is really engaged in cognitive warfare.
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On the one hand, it strengthens its cognitive warfare capabilities, and on the other hand, the DPP authorities have drawn up a record defense budget and intend to procure more offensive weapons.
Under the pretext of "responding to unprecedented military pressure on Chinese mainland after the visit of US House Speaker Pelosi," the DPP authorities announced that they would submit a defense budget of NT$415.1 billion for next year, an increase of nearly 13% over 2022.
But that's not all.
If the "special budget for procurement" of NT$108.3 billion intended for purchasing new fighters and enhancing naval and air combat capabilities is added together, the total budget for next year will reach NT$523.4 billion, an increase of nearly 15% over 2022.
In addition, Taiwan's so-called "Executive Yuan" also listed a "special fund budget" of NT$62.9 billion, but did not specify the specific purpose of this special fund.
It can be seen that the DPP authorities have increased their defense funds very much.
What are the main purposes of these additional funds?
In the words of the DPP authorities, "the main emphasis is on improving asymmetric combat effectiveness, including the purchase of missiles capable of striking Chinese mainland depths."
See, isn't this developing offensive weapons? The DPP authorities are using "asymmetric combat strength" to cover up "offensiveness."
An expert on the Taiwan issue told the "make-up knife" that the Taiwan military's development of offensive military strength is mainly through two channels, one is to purchase directly from the United States, and the other is inconvenient to purchase, and it is developed in the so-called "independent research and development" method, but in fact, it also relies on the private technical help of the United States and other countries.
In terms of developing long-range strike missiles, Taiwan's defense department announced in 2021 that the Taiwan military's future military construction target will focus on "long-range strikes" and will continue to develop air-launched missiles that can greatly increase their range.
According to publicly available information, the Hsiung Wind II E cruise missile developed and mass-produced by Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" is a surface-to-surface cruise missile. The range in 2011 was publicly stated at 600 km, with the goal of 3,000 km to increase the range to threaten targets in the southeastern region of the Chinese mainland.
In terms of weapons procurement, according to Reuters, a person familiar with the matter said that the Biden administration will announce a new batch of arms sales projects to Taiwan as soon as September.
The focus of the arms sale is to "maintain Taiwan's current military system and fulfill existing orders" rather than to provide military capabilities that are more likely to exacerbate cross-strait tensions. "It is more likely that taiwan will sell guns and ammunition, not just weapons," the source said: "If there is a ban on Taiwan, Taiwan will need more military supplies and ammunition." ”
Earlier, Campbell, the White House Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs, said that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan will be designed to meet the changing security environment facing Taiwan. Since 2017, the U.S. government has approved arms sales to Taiwan worth more than $18 billion, most of which were made during the administration of former President Trump.
A researcher at the Taiwan Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the "patch up a knife" that gradually relaxing the transfer of offensive weapons has become a new feature of the US arms sales policy toward Taiwan. Trump's 11 arms sales to Taiwan during his presidency, among which those that exceed the "Taiwan Relations Act" restrictions on the provision of defensive weapons by the United States to Taiwan include:
66 F-16V fighters worth $8 billion, 135 AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER air-to-surface missiles (extended-range, out-of-sight air-launched land-attack missiles with ranges of 250-300 km), a Haimas multi-barrel rocket launcher system with a range of more than 250 km, 100 shore-based Harpoon missile systems worth $2.37 billion, etc.
After Tsai Ing-wen came to power in May 2016, she proposed "defense autonomy and industrial development", making the defense industry one of the six core strategic industries, and the "red zone" part of the equipment and technology required for the manufacture of submarines (including sonar systems and combat systems, which cannot be self-made must be acquired through outsourcing).
In April 2018, the U.S. State Department issued a marketing license for the sale of submarine manufacturing technology to Taiwan, allowing U.S. military industrial enterprises to provide relevant sensitive technology to Taiwan. During the Trump period, the Taiwan Air Force purchased AGM-158 joint defense zone outer air-to-ground missiles from the United States, which were equipped on F-16 fighter jets, claiming to be "capable of accurately striking high-value military targets such as the command, control, and air defense system of the mainland side," which was obviously offensive.
After the PLA's large-scale military exercise to "close the island," the Taiwan military is reassessing its demand for weapons procurement and hopes to acquire more large weapons, including warships and fighter jets, "to counter a possible blockade war by the PLA."
The United States used to believe that the Taiwan military should give priority to cheap, small and highly mobile weapons, such as the Stinger anti-aircraft missile, which is crucial in resisting PLA operations. But Taiwan now says the strategy may need to be adjusted.
Because the PLA now regularly sends large ships to approach or cross the so-called "median line of the strait," it also sends ships to hover on the east and west sides of the Bashi Strait between Taiwan and the Philippines, and maintains a regular military presence between Taiwan and Japan and The Nagoku Islands. So Taiwanese officials said, "In order to counter these ships of 500 tons or more, medium and large warships are really necessary." ”
Since this year, the Biden administration has rejected the DPP authorities' demands for large, expensive weapons systems, arguing that these weapons are inefficient in preventing the People's Liberation Army from attacking the platform.
According to Gretel, an expert at the German Marshall Foundation, the first task of the US government seems to be to ensure the delivery of the previous large backlog of arms sales requests to Taiwan.
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