China employs hackers and celebrities to undermine Taiwan

To Taiwan, the social-media message was just one piece of China’s multifaceted campaign to intimidate, isolate and influence the people and leaders of the island democracy to give up their commitment to self-rule.

Alongside its most high-profile tactic—sending a message of military dominance—China is employing what Taiwan says is an expanding army of hackers, diplomats, prosecutors and celebrities in its effort to persuade Taiwan to submit to Beijing.

“If you put all these things together…Taiwan feels under intense pressure and probably greater than anything ever before,” said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, a Washington-based think tank.

China claims Taiwan, an island 100 miles from the mainland, as its own territory. Support within Taiwan for maintaining the current arrangement—an island democracy governed from Taipei—is at a high, according to a 30-year survey on the topic. Voters this year elected a new president whose party is committed to resisting China’s embrace.

Mainland officials depict President Lai Ching-te as an advocate for Taiwan’s independence—a red line for Beijing. Lai says he is committed to preserving the status quo.

“The threat to us includes military, gray zone and economic coercion, hybrid warfare, legal warfare and psychological warfare,” Joseph Wu, head of Taiwan’s National Security Council, said after the Chinese drills began Monday.

As the drills unfolded, cyberattacks multiplied: Taiwan was hit Monday with at least twice the average number of daily attempted breaches, the military’s cyber command reported. Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office didn’t respond to a request for comment on accusations that Beijing is behind the cyberattacks.

More than 90,000 cyberattack attempts on Taiwan were detected in August, with targets including government infrastructure, according to Taiwan’s Digital Affairs Ministry. It was the highest number since a surge two years earlier during a controversial visit to the island by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Chinese diplomats have taken part in an effort to chip away at the international backing, both official and unofficial, that Taiwan relies on to maintain its status. At the United Nations, China has seized on the 1971 resolution that allowed Beijing to take Taipei’s seat at the world body, portraying it as evidence that Taiwan is part of China with Beijing as its legitimate government.

Beijing, meanwhile, is pursuing a yearslong campaign to press the dozen small nations that remain Taiwan’s official allies to flip their allegiance, wooing them with the promise of market access and investment.

Beijing has also succeeded in inserting language about its claim to Taiwan into the official joint statements that emerge from meetings with China-friendly nations, or from gatherings such as last month’s China-Africa forum in Beijing, which was attended by more than two dozen African leaders.

Taiwan officials say China has gone so far as to enlist Taiwanese celebrities to its cause.

“One of the ways they do this is by inviting well-known Taiwanese figures—whether they’re from the arts, entertainment, or politics—to share pro-unification views,” said Tsai Ming-yen, the head of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, after some celebrities posted maps of the Monday drills and expressed support for Beijing’s “One China” policy.

Officials in Taiwan say China’s media campaign includes spreading disinformation designed to weaken U.S. confidence in the island’s ability to defend itself. One message that circulated online during Monday’s drills alleged that a Taiwanese naval captain had been drinking all night on Sunday. The investigation bureau of Taiwan’s Justice Ministry said the claim was false.

“This is part of the cognitive warfare coming from mainland China,” said Hsieh Ching-chin, deputy head of the Taiwanese coast guard. “We also call on the Taiwanese public not to fall into the traps.”

Many Taiwanese internet users seemed unfazed by the Chinese coast guard’s heart-shaped message—comparing China to an obsessive ex who can’t let go of a toxic relationship.

The military drills, however, are ominous. China hasn’t ruled out the use of force if Taiwan moves toward declaring independence or if peaceful unification appears to be impossible. In its exercises, in addition to encircling the island, simulating a blockade, China has simulated a direct attack.

Monday’s drills featured more aircraft than China has used in the past, and the largest number yet of Chinese naval and coast-guard vessels surrounding the island, a senior Taiwan security official said. The official said the Chinese sent 25 ships near Taiwan’s 24-nautical-mile zone, which Taiwan has declared a line of defense that must not be crossed.

Movements toward Taiwan from the mainland now occur almost daily, including drones and balloons, according to a recent Taiwan Defense Ministry report. People’s Liberation Army flight activities “are putting more strain on our defenses, affecting public morale, and allowing them to gradually fine-tune their military preparations against Taiwan,” the ministry said.

At around 7 a.m. Monday, as the military drills were unfolding, Taiwan’s coast guard said it spotted a rubber dinghy dropping off a single “mainland stowaway” in Taiwanese territory at the Taipei-controlled Kinmen islands, just off the Chinese mainland.

Taiwanese authorities describe such incidents as gray-zone harassment, which Taiwan’s Defense Ministry describes as incursions involving “small forces, multiple batches, extended durations, and a clear focus.”

In September, a Taiwanese court sentenced a former Chinese navy captain to eight months in prison for illegally entering Taiwan by speedboat after crossing the choppy waters of the strait from China’s eastern coast. Taiwan officials suggested that he and others recently caught attempting the crossing were testing Taiwan’s defenses.

Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office responded in May to Taiwan’s “gray-zone” accusations by accusing Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party of provoking tensions. “No one wants peaceful reunification more than we do,” the office said. “We have to push back and take action.”

As the drills played out Monday, Beijing moved on the legal front, accusing a lawmaker from Lai’s party and a senior Taiwan business executive of “secessionist activities” and prohibiting them from visiting mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Beijing revived the secession theme earlier this year, publishing guidelines on implementing a 2005 secession law. The instructions call for Chinese courts to “severely punish ‘Taiwan independence’ die-hards” with sentences that could include execution.

China used the law for the first time against a Taiwanese citizen in April, sentencing 34-year-old activist Yang Chih-yuan to nine years in prison. Yang, who had once been involved in a small pro-independence party, was arrested in the Chinese city of Wenzhou in 2022. He was there, he said, to teach Go, the traditional board game.

The secession law is one of the legal tools that China is using to try to intimidate Taiwan, said Glaser.

“It’s a constant drumbeat of signals to Taiwan,” said Glaser, “that according to China, Taiwan is part of China, and they will use every tool in their tool kit to bring about reunification.”

Write to Joyu Wang at joyu.wang@wsj.com and Austin Ramzy at austin.ramzy@wsj.com