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Polls show Taiwan's trust in the US is declining
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- Author: Tessa Wong
- Scrolling, BBC News in Taipei
1 hour ago
The rumor was old but effective: Taiwanese were being fed “poisoned pork imported from the United States.”
In addition to the fake news that spread again weeks ago, there was another: The Taiwanese government secretly collected blood from citizens and delivered it to the USA to create a biological weapon to attack China. Both were quickly refuted.
The “yimeilun,” or “skepticism of the United States,” tactic questions the loyalty of Taiwan’s biggest ally and portrays the island as a puppet exploited by the Americans.
Their ultimate goal, analysts say, is to drive a wedge between Taiwan and the US and push the Taiwanese into the arms of China.
“There seems to be a narrative that if there is a war or the situation is not favorable to the United States, the U.S. will not support Taiwan or will leave the island,” said Kuangshun Yang, a disinformation researcher who coined the term has Yimeilun in 2018.
Disinformation experts say China is involved in spreading these messages.
It's not always about conspiracy theories most of the time it's a news highlight that shows the United States in a negative light or portrays it as an unreliable superpower.
“For China, this is a battle for public opinion,” said Puma Shen, a Taiwanese expert on Chinese disinformation who was nominated for parliament by the Democratic Progressive Party.
“Convincing everyone that China is the best country is more difficult, but convincing everyone that America is problematic is relatively easier. This would be a success for China.”
When Taiwanese chip giant TSMC expanded in the US, it was described as American coercion and a “hollowing out” of Taiwan's resources. And the sale of weapons from the USA to Taiwan was considered a “theft” of the island's money there were rumors that the weapons would not be of high quality.
These were among 84 types of narratives of skepticism toward the United States that the think tank Iorg discovered in Chineselanguage media, social media, the PTT online forum and the messaging platform Line between 2021 and 2023.
The propaganda departments of Chinese provincial governments and state media amplified these narratives and, in some cases, were even the first sources identified.
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Fears over U.S. pork have sparked protests in Taiwan in the past
But most of the sources were Taiwanese politicians and proChina press organizations. The suspicion of Chinese state influence has long existed.
A Portal report in 2019 found evidence that mainland authorities were paying Taiwanese media to spread disinformation.
The biological weapons rumor first surfaced in an unsubstantiated Taiwanese newspaper report in which some suspected Beijing's involvement.
The US pork rumor began with publications claiming, without any evidence, that the government was secretly passing off American pork as Taiwanese.
Weeks later, others made the claim about toxic pork products from the United States, which was traced to an old report that has since been debunked.
The idea that U.S. pork might not be safe to eat has been debated in Taiwan for years.
But he returned in time for what appeared to be a close presidential race. Shen estimates that a disinformation campaign would only need to convince about 3% of voters to influence the election outcome.
Before the last election in 2020, Taiwan experienced a huge wave of disinformation, believed to have come from China. Although it ultimately failed President Tsai Ingwen won her second term in a landslide it deeply disturbed many Taiwanese.
But the political landscape has changed since then. On the one hand, tensions with China have increased Beijing has repeatedly reiterated unification as a goal and offered peace without ruling out the use of force.
And secondly, trust in the USA is dwindling.
Polls show that the Taiwanese public still trusts the United States much more than China. But the annual American Portrait poll conducted by Taiwanese scholars found that in 2023, only 34% of Taiwanese believed the U.S. was a trustworthy country, compared to 45% in 2021.
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As the election approaches, antiAmerican disinformation is on the rise in Taiwan
Another survey conducted by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation found that 51% of Taiwanese in their early 20s identify with narratives of skepticism toward the U.S., the highest among all age groups.
The election organization said one possible reason for these results is that young Taiwanese are more likely to be sent to the front lines of a possible war.
But most of this is due to American actions themselves. The disastrous withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the reluctance of a divided Congress to continue funding the war in Ukraine have increased Taiwan's fears that the United States would abandon them or not intervene if China attacked, analysts say American newspaper. Hong Kong China.
In 2021, Jaw Shawkong, the Kuomintang vice presidential candidate who has called for closer ties with China and stoked skepticism about the US, warned: “If Taiwan does not want to become a second Afghanistan, it must think clearly about whether this is the case.” You want war or peace.
Skepticism toward the United States also played a role in “sowing” doubt, said Chihhao Yu, author of the Iorg study. “And then when the US made a mistake, it confirmed the obvious suspicions.”
Orphan mentality
Like all other propaganda and disinformation, skepticism about the US thrives on fear, be it about food security or the threat of war.
But it also undermines something fundamental in the Taiwanese mindset: a decadeslong uncertainty about their relationship with America.
That's because of Taiwan's “orphan mentality,” Yang said. “Taiwan was a colony of many empires that were repeatedly relocated by its previous rulers. This historical perspective is always anchored in the collective memory.”
“But the most direct trigger was 1979.”
This year, the United States surprised the world and dismayed Taiwan when it formalized diplomatic relations with China after months of secret negotiations. By changing the recognition of the Chinese capital from Taipei to Beijing, the United States severed its official relations with the island.
But they also passed a law that says they have to help Taiwan defend itself. To this day, it maintains close informal ties with the island and sells weapons to it.
But the diplomatic break raised the idea “that Taiwan could be abandoned by the United States again,” Yang said.
The trauma was so profound that it inspired the 1980s Taiwanese hit “Orphan of Asia.”
She speaks of an “orphan crying in the wind” while “the west wind sings a sad song in the east.”
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President Jimmy Carter and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 after both sides normalized relations
That's why skepticism toward the United States often goes hand in hand with proChina narratives and encourages Taiwan to cooperate more with China to ensure peace, Yang added.
“If Taiwan is an orphan, then it should be a prodigal son returning to the great nation (China) rather than remaining an affiliate of the United States.”
American assurances are the best antidote to US skepticism, analysts say.
“If our ally could become more aware of the dangers of skepticism toward the United States and reaffirm the positive aspects of our partnership, people would realize that this (relationship) is good for us,” Yu said.
“China does this all the time, they talk about all the benefits Taiwan gets from it. But you don’t see that often in U.S. political messages.”
The island has strengthened its defenses against misinformation through public education campaigns, reporting hotlines and even AI chatbots that report fake news.
Taiwan's parliament has also considered introducing antidisinformation laws, although this has raised concerns about restrictions on press freedom.
However, it is estimated that Taiwan is already a target for the spread of false information by foreign governments.
According to Weiping Li, a researcher at the antidisinformation group Taiwan Factcheck Center, years of propaganda and disinformation have polarized society and led to greater distrust of facts.
“The problem is not so much misinformation, but rather people's attitudes towards information… They will ask: Can you trust them? “You will make a judgment about the credibility of the information based on your party affiliation or political views,” she said.
As Taiwan improves its defense, China will also improve its influence discourse with more sophisticated methods, Shen warned.
The Taiwanese government's constant warnings about the dangers of Chinese influence, coupled with Beijing's efforts to stigmatize criticism of China, have led to fatigue among ordinary Taiwanese, he said.
“Even if we want to discuss China's problems these days, there will be people who say… Why aren't they discussing America's problems?”
Report in collaboration with Sucheera Maguire.