Lawmakers raise awareness of CCP’s cognitive warfare

Fang Wei-li, Chen Cheng-yu and Jason Pan

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Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers Puma Shen (沈伯洋) and Fan Yun (范雲) over the weekend in The Hague raised international awareness about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) cognitive warfare by highlighting the threats and challenges Taiwan faces from China’s influence operations and “gray zone” tactics. They represented the DPP at Liberal International’s Executive Committee Meeting, which ran from Friday to yesterday. Shen during a panel discussion on Saturday provided an analysis on cyberwarfare, citing his own experiences in fighting against China’s increasingly sophisticated use of propaganda and “cognitive warfare” targeting Taiwanese.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen poses for a photograph in The Hague, Netherlands, in an undated photograph. Democratic countries cannot just stay on the defensive or merely respond to fake news and slander, Shen said. China is using online and offline means, as well as other tactics, to collect the digital footprints of Taiwanese people and organizations, and integrate those into its cyber-physical system, he said. The CCP has been infiltrating local communities, buying influence to set up contacts and proxies at the grassroots level, and has reached key figures in local temples, where they tap into social networks to collect information, Shen said.