(Central News Agency reporter Chen Yunyu, London, 26th) The non-profit organization “Taiwan Democracy Laboratory” recently released an analysis. The Taiwan election in January this year attracted attention not only in China but also in Russian social media. Some comments took the opportunity to hype that the United States intended to detonate the election. There are more regional conflicts, and some comments deliberately question Taiwan’s sovereignty and democracy.
“Taiwan Democracy Laboratory” (Doublethink Lab) focused on analyzing posts posted on the Telegram platform from January 13 to 15 and viewed by more than 10,000 people. Taiwan completed its general election on January 13.
According to analysis, in these posts whose ideology is close to the Moscow authorities, the DPP and the KMT are presented as parties that “represent the United States” and “represent China” respectively, implying that Taiwan cannot control its own destiny and that Taiwan’s survival depends on the United States and China. The two major powers are competing against each other, and the Taiwan election is a struggle between the US and China’s respective puppets.
Some Russian-language comments claimed that the Democratic Progressive Party was inciting hostility between China and Taiwan, claiming that Taiwan would be the party to take aggressive actions against China, thereby triggering China’s retaliation.
In these comments, the United States has also been accused of being the instigator of conflicts, and the DPP’s victory means that more American weapons and military facilities will appear in Taiwan, which will inevitably lead to a war across the Taiwan Strait.
According to analysis, the Democratic Progressive Party’s victory in the general election was also portrayed by relevant Russian-language comments as the United States’ success in maintaining control over Taiwan in order to trigger a war against China. Some posts stated that in the future, the United States will increase its efforts to stimulate China through more military provocations, diplomatic and information attacks, official visits to Taiwan, etc.
In this narrative context, relevant Russian-language content often links the so-called inevitable conflict across the Taiwan Strait to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Such narratives often describe Russia as a “victim” of Western policies and claim that Russia’s sovereign interests have been suppressed. Like the war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Taiwan Strait will also be a “proxy war”, but the goal of the United States’ struggle is determined by Russia turns to China.
The relevant Russian content stated that both Ukraine and Taiwan are US puppets; the United States is trying to use Taiwan to cause instability in the region and create “Ukraine 2.0.”
The Democratic Progressive Party’s vote share in the presidential election has also been used to make a fuss. The “Taiwan Democracy Laboratory” pointed out that relevant Russian-language content often emphasizes that the Democratic Progressive Party only won about 40% of the votes in the presidential election, and claims that the majority of Taiwanese people actually want to be closer to China. After further accounting for the turnout, relevant comments even claimed that the DPP only won the support of about 29% of voters in the presidential election.
These Russian-language contents also question the lack of “true democracy” in Taiwan. For example, the Taiwan Democracy Laboratory posted a post citing Taiwanese media reports that on January 13, nearly a hundred people in Kinmen were stranded at Taipei Songshan Airport and were unable to take military flights back home to vote.
Without context, the relevant posts accused the Taiwan authorities of “mediating elections” and deliberately preventing up to 80% of Kinmen’s Kuomintang supporters from returning home, saying, “It turns out that this is a democratic method of mediating elections.”
However, the “Taiwan Democracy Laboratory” cited a report from the Central News Agency and mentioned that according to a press release issued by the Ministry of National Defense, during the presidential and legislative elections, the national military at all levels completed combat readiness rotation and vacation planning in accordance with regulations, and related manpower adjustment plans to meet combat readiness The principle is to take into account mission requirements and the voting rights of officers and soldiers, so it cannot support the transportation mission requirements “temporarily proposed” by the Civil Aviation Administration.
It is worth mentioning that the phenomenon described in the above report has been present in Russian-speaking cyberspace for many years, and the ideology presented has long been part of the mainstream of Russian society. In addition to the Russian people, the persuasiveness of relevant discussions to the Taiwanese people and the underlying reasons as well as how Russia and China “sing a harmony” are worthy of further exploration. (Editor: Chen Huiping) 1130426
