Old wine in a new bottle－Chinese disinformation about military activities in Asia during the summer of 2024
Old wine in a new bottle－Chinese disinformation about military activities in Asia during the summer of 2024
Summer 2024 was a busy time. Rumors abounded throughout the many unexpected turns in the US presidential campaign and the French Olympic Games. In Asia, the spotlight was mostly on the conflicts in the South China Sea, China’s aggressive activities in the airspace and waters surrounding Taiwan, and the drills conducted by the Taiwanese military. Disinformation peddlers used this chance to perpetuate Chinese nationalism, while some messages targeted Taiwanese audiences. Most of these disinformation pieces were new, but they repeated the same old underlying messages: the Chinese military is powerful, whereas the US is unreliable; although the Taiwanese military is weak, any attempts to strengthen it will only cause needless disturbance to the people of Taiwan.
The Taiwanese president's inauguration took place on May 20, 2024. As in 2016 and 2020, the Chinese military conducted drills near Taiwan as a response to this year’s presidential inauguration, but on a more aggressive scale. Furthermore, Chinese military aircraft have crossed the Taiwan Strait median line more frequently, demonstrating their military power and weakening Taiwanese confidence in the capability to defend themselves against China. To help Taiwan strengthen its military strength, the U.S. government approved a $360 million weapon sale to Taiwan in June. In July and August, Taiwan also conducted regular military drills.
In the South China Sea, tensions over territorial disputes between China and the Philippines have intensified during the summer. Chinese Coast Guard ships and Philippine navy boats collided in June when the Philippine ship attempted to deliver supplies to the landing craft BRP Sierra Madre outpost in the Spratly Islands. Even though China and the Philippines reached an agreement in July trying to dissolve the disputes, vessels of the two countries clashed again in August near the Sabina Shoal, one of the contested reefs in the South China Sea.
The disinformation regarding the Chinese military drill during the Taiwanese presidential inauguration
Numerous disinformation claims emerged from May to August, specifically exploiting these events.
In May and early June, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te took office and the Chinese military conducted exercises to "give Taiwan warnings," videos circulating on Facebook, YouTube, X, and Weibo showed military aircraft flying across Taiwan island on the inauguration day and claiming, "Chinese military aircraft passed by the Taipei 101 skyscraper; the People's Liberation Army rocks!" or "Chinese military aircraft flew across Taipei, Tainan, Taitung, Keelung!!"
The Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) found that these videos were edited from a Douyin clip. Although the video was recorded in Taipei on the inauguration day, the aircraft in the video belonged to the Taiwan Air Force. The Chinese military aircraft did not fly close to the Taiwan Strait media line on that day, either.
A false claim asserted that Chinese military aircraft flew close to the Taipei 101 building on the day of Taiwan's presidential inauguration.
As China continued to send more ships and planes into the surrounding waters and airspace in the following months, more false information pieces circulated, claiming that the People's Liberation Army and Taiwan's military were engaged in combat and a war might break out.
Early in June, texts spread via LINE and Facebook that the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) was hosting a meeting for US citizens living in Taiwan to discuss evacuation procedures in the event of a conflict between China and Taiwan. According to TFC's verification, the AIT held a routine meeting with American citizens to address general issues, but the evacuation plan was not on the agenda.
False information disseminated in June and early July also claimed that "Taiwan deploys mines in Kaohsiung waters" and "Japan's TBS reported that the People's Liberation Army and the Taiwan Air Force squared off in the air 8 kilometers southwest of Hualien, Taiwan." Spread on Weibo, X, and Facebook, the former claim in simplified Chinese and English included a video asserting that "Taiwan was preparing for the escalation." The video, however, had nothing to do with recent events; instead, it was about a training session held by the Taiwanese military in January.
The latter assertion on the military conflict between Taiwan and China was an old rumor spread in 2020. The false piece stated the Taiwanese military planes were nearly destroyed by their Chinese counterpart and included a video claiming the news was from Japan’s TBS news. The truth is that the video consisted of a collage of unrelated TV news segments from Russian social media and Taiwanese news media; it was certainly not produced by the Japanese TBS station.
The mocking and complaints about the Taiwanese military drills
Disinformation pieces throughout the summer continued to shape narratives about the frailty of the Taiwanese military and emphasized the disruption from the annual drills caused inconvenience in daily life. The underlying lesson of the fake stories is that the Taiwanese military is too weak. Military preparations are unnecessary.
For years, disinformation peddlers have propagated claims that the Taiwanese military is incapable of combating the Chinese military. Many of these disinformation pieces featured footage of clumsy soldiers failing to do their training or jobs. In recent months, social media accounts have also shared similar videos. For instance, one post questioned how inexperienced young soldiers could defend Taiwan, showing videos of gun accidents that occurred during military training. In actuality, the accidents in the video happened in another country.
Some old rumors resurfaced and spread much more widely this summer. Multiple disinformation pieces circulated on social media, alleging that numerous Taiwanese military officers or students who served in the Air Force and Army had resigned. Similar fake claims were prevalent in 2021, but they reappeared with the Taiwanese president's inauguration and again in August. The Taiwan FactCheck Center identified signs of coordinated conduct among these posts, particularly those posted in May 2024.
For example, the posts contained identical content and were frequently removed shortly after being published on platforms. A few accounts that shared the messages were also flagged by social media companies for engaging in dubious online activity.
The problematic posts targeting the military drills in Taiwan this summer were complaints that the drills caused civilians inconvenience or safety issues. For example, a false assertion said that tanks driving on the street during the drills would damage the roads. A similar claim spread last year on social media, although the videos in both claims were from different sources.
An interesting new theme surfacing this year was the misleading assertion that the military stashed ammunition or tanks in temples and would make civilians war targets. Posts on this topic were likely created in response to the annual Hang Kuang military training, which began on July 22, 2024. One of the posts appeared on the 24th, with a photo of tanks stationed in a temple in southern Taiwan. However, it was an old photo taken from a different place on an unrelated occasion.
A few weeks later, other posts circulated on social media, including TikTok, suggesting that storing ammunition could turn civilians into war targets and violate international law. This assertion piqued the interest of mainstream media, sparking debates not only in Taiwan but even in Chinese media, including the propaganda website Guancha.cn. The main narrative painted the Taiwanese military as "making people scared and angry" or "endangering civilians." Many news articles or discussions ended with the conclusion that "Civilians hoped for peace across the strait after all."
Screenshots of false claims asserting that the military stored ammunition in temples and made civilians war targets. Some claims said the ammunition storage in temples had violated international laws.
While the disinformation pieces attempted to stoke people's dissatisfaction with the military drills, some used the opportunity to raise skepticism in the United States.
Videos on Facebook and LINE claimed that "the United States sold expired weapons to Taiwan" and referenced the example of the recent Pingtung military drill in August, in which some firearms provided to Taiwan by Americans failed to strike targets. The TFC determined that the videos were accurate, but the claim was misleading. According to the military, the purpose of this drill was to clear the almost outdated ammunition while training soldiers with less experience. Military specialists also confirmed that the US did not sell unusable weapons to Taiwan.
However, this assertion echoed another piece spread in July, which claimed that "according to US laws, the US can only sell obsolete weapons to Taiwan" because Americans do not want China to get US weapons if Taiwan loses the war. The disinformation that the US provided useless weaponry to Taiwan has once again repeated the theme of skepticism toward the US that has hung over Taiwan in recent years.
Everything is about how great the Chinese military is
The US skepticism narrative also appeared in the disinformation pieces centering on the conflicts between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. Although in the past months, the US was not directly involved in the confrontations, rumors claimed that China and the US started "an electronic war" over the South China Sea. According to the false claim, the conflict caused a significant disruption to GPS signals in the Northern Philippines. Eventually, China defeated the US in this war, making the US aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt malfunction and escape.
The claim described an event that never happened. However, it has spread rapidly on Chinese social media and websites, as well as among Taiwanese social media users via LINE and Facebook, and has reverberated through Taiwanese news media and talk shows, with the underlying message being that the Chinese military is strong enough to beat the US.
Different stories reiterated the same lessons
Overall, military disinformation was very active this summer. While some disinformation pieces capitalized on the most recent developments in military drills or conflicts, others were seen before. Nevertheless, they all repeated similar lessons, which extolled the power of the Chinese military while undermining the Taiwanese’s trust in their own and the US. We urge researchers and policymakers to be aware of and examine the phenomenon of repeating themes constantly reinforced with old and new claims. Furthermore, more attention should be devoted to the consequences of disinformation pieces that continuously impart the same lessons to audiences over time.
Wei-Ping Li is a research fellow at the Taiwan FactCheck Center.
Rogge Chen (fact-checker at the Taiwan FactCheck Center) contributed to this analysis.
