Inspite of Communist China attempts, Democracy thrives in Taiwan republic
Whatever statements Communist leadership from China may keep broadcasting, now after the Presidential elections in Taiwan the Republic, they need to understand clearly that Taiwan question is not a matter of China’s internal affair. Taiwan is and remains a free country.
Unlike Tibet, another free country which was forcibly captured by China, Taiwan cannot be captured even after a major war. Also in that war, not only will China get mauled badly aka China Vietnam war but will also get unravelled by losing Xinjiang and of course Tibet will become free.
After the election result in Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson demonstrated its frustration by once again pleading to the people of Taiwan to uphold Communists dream of one-China principle. Though it hardly has any backers in the rest of the world, it still opposes “Taiwan independence”, “two Chinas” and “one China, one Taiwan”.
It is very clear that just like Bharat, Pakistan and Bangladesh there is China and Taiwan and soon Tibet will again regain its independence. “The one-China principle “ is no more backed by the international community and billion plus Indians strongly oppose it. They fully support Taiwan’s freedom.
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Saturday said that Taiwan has shown its democratic resilience to the world despite China’s attempts to intervene in the national elections.
In his address at the 2024 Democratic Resilience Forum in Taipei, Wu stated that Taiwan successfully held legislative and presidential polls last week despite China’s attempts to manipulate the election results, according to Focus Taiwan report. He further said Taiwan’s mature response to Chinese methods showcased the country’s democratic resilience.
Joseph Wu stressed that with the development of informational technologies, cognitive warfare is no longer just news content, but what people face in their daily lives. He stated that the techniques used will further be upgraded in the future, noting that authoritarian regimes and their local collaborators will use more tools of intimidation.
Taiwan Information Environment Research Centre (IORG), a civil data science research organization that seeks to spread public awareness of information manipulation, hosted the event on Saturday.
While addressing the forum, IORG co-director Yu Chih-hao said that information manipulation in Taiwan has characteristics including sabotaging democratic operations, denying democratic values, and negating Taiwan’s sovereignty, according to Focus Taiwan report.
He further said information manipulation tried to target more “professional and classified” topics, like vaccines, semiconductors and national defence. Yu stressed that much of this misinformation is disseminated in video format or generated by artificial intelligence, making research more difficult.
Yu Chih-hao said in the months prior to the elections, even polls became a manipulative tool, including outright fake poll numbers, street surveys claiming to showcase the majority view, or politicians and online opinion leaders citing questionable surveys to frame their narratives among the supporters.
He said that vote-rigging rumours could “seriously harm Taiwanese people’s trust toward the democratic system.” Citing IORG research, Yu said seven days prior to the polls and after the election day, there were 15.6 million views on YouTube and 16.6 million views on TikTok on videos where vote rigging was mentioned.
According to Yu, the top 10 most viewed YouTube videos were about different opinions on the alleged vote-rigging, while the top 10 TikTok channels that had the most viewed videos on the topic were making accusations about vote-rigging, Yu said.
Yu added that the TikTok account with the most viewed videos on vote-rigging was set up only two weeks prior to the polls, Focus Taiwan reported.
Yu said eight of the 10 most viewed videos have been removed from these platforms after the Central Election Commission on Wednesday announced that it had gathered related materials as evidence and handed them over to the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office and the Criminal Investigation Bureau.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te has won the much-anticipated Taiwanese presidential polls and is set to be the next president amid concerns about escalating tensions with China. This marks the historic third-straight victory for the DPP after Tsai Ing-wen completed her two terms as Taiwan’s President since 2016.
