English By Joyce Huang Share on Facebook Print this page TAIPEI - A Taipei think tank and observers in Taiwan say China is trying to influence residents with “cognitive warfare,” hoping to reverse opposition to Beijing’s desired takeover of Taiwan so it can be accomplished without having to go to war.
Taiwanese attitudes have been drifting away from the mainland, especially among the younger generation, whose members see themselves “born independent” with no ties to China.
China’s effort, these analysts say, includes tactics ranging from military intimidation and propaganda to misinformation spread by its army of online trolls in a bid to manipulate public opinion. They say the complexity and frequency of the effort puts Taiwan on a constant defensive.
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2020-12-31 09:05:15 GMT2020-12-31 17:05:15(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
TAIPEI, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) Globally it was natural for people to feel gloomy about the year 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Across the Taiwan Strait, such sentiment was intensified by the political manipulation by Taiwan s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to obstruct cross-Strait exchanges.
Observers said this sentiment was demonstrated by this year s result of the word of the year selection an annual poll conducted across the Strait since 2008.
The Chinese character men, which describes a depressed sentiment or a state of confinement, won the most votes out of 15.2 million from both mainland and Taiwan respondents.