The 3 Purposes Behind China’s Latest Taiwan Propaganda and Why They Reflect Its Insecurity

In July, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) published its most recent defense white paper detailing its military goals in the coming years and its view of the world’s security situation. The paper included many meaningful signals of the CCP’s present and future intentions in the region and beyond. Alongside this, it also included highly distorted facts aimed to mislead readers, as well as information presented to serve as propaganda. In this paper, several new terms and rhetorical tools are used, with greater intensity than previous ones, ahead of Taiwan’s 2020 presidential and legislative elections.

For the first time, an official CCP state document labels Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party as an enemy. “The fight against separatists is becoming more acute,” one paragraph begins. According to the Chinese Communist Party, “the Taiwan authorities, led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), stubbornly stick to ‘Taiwan independence’ and refuse to recognize the 1992 Consensus.” Though it has previously used channels such as its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and various state media outlets to voice such a position, this is the first time the CCP has used an official state document to call out a Taiwanese political party by name.

According to the paper, the DPP has gone “further down the path of separatism by stepping up efforts to sever the connection with the mainland.” Under the DPP, Taiwan has raised “hostility and confrontation” toward China, according to the CCP.

The white paper labels “‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces” to be “the gravest immediate threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” and declares “resolutely” that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), under the control of the party, will “defeat anyone attempting to separate Taiwan from China.”

Though this rhetoric resembles the same language the CCP has consistently used to talk about Taiwan, the changes in the paper provide meaningful insight into the intention of China’s propaganda on Taiwan. On this, the propaganda included in the defense white paper appears to have three priorities.

Goal #1: Boost Nationalist Sentiment Domestically and Strengthen Party Legitimacy

For the most part, the rhetoric above serves as excellent material for internal and domestic circulation within the party, between state and party media, and for general consumption by ordinary citizens of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

In an informational environment largely quarantined from the outside world via the “Great Firewall” and other means of social control, this propaganda helps fuel nationalist sentiments within China. The CCP, utilizing the advantage of a tightly nationalized and monitored internet, has always sought to harness the power of nationalism to push on its political purposes. For example, amid on-going protests in Hong Kong, a “witch hunt” emerged to target foreign fashion brands that failed to imply that Hong Kong was a part of China.

Other terms alluding to China’s greatness—such as “China dream,” “realizing national rejuvenation,” and the inclusion of the term “New Era” in the paper’s title⁠—show that the party is trying very hard to channel the power of nationalism amid anti-Beijing sentiments in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Facing external threats, Beijing continues to portray China as something greater than it actually is to draw its people away from the party’s precarious situation. The party, through telling Chinese citizens stories and claims of greatness, continues to legitimize its authoritarian rule.

Goal Two: Demoralize and Divide Taiwan

The white paper explicitly calls out Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party by name for the first time in an official defense document. This direct callout of the DPP by name is likely a signal from Beijing in an attempt to rally pro-Beijing elements in Taiwan to unite against the DPP. 

Though Beijing has maintained that it will use violence if necessary to unify Taiwan with China, it also made clear that those threats are not “targeted at [the CCP’s] compatriots in Taiwan.” Rather, it is aimed towards the “interference of external forces and the very small number of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists and their activities.” 

There is a direct ambiguity of who exactly this “very small number” refers to. That ambiguity, implied to include the DPP but not the people of Taiwan, acts as a call for the Taiwanese people to vote against the DPP. 

There are already elements within Taiwan, such as the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) and many others, that are explicitly pushing for the dissolution of Taiwan’s democratic institutions in favor of Beijing’s rule. The call resembles the age-old CCP tactic of forming “united fronts” against enemies domestic and abroad.

The CCP will continue to cooperate with other parties in Taiwan through hosting exchange conferences and cooperating with media firms to influence Taiwanese politics. By declaring the DPP as a threat and an enemy, Beijing is signaling to Taiwanese voters that cooperation with the DPP cannot coexist with cooperation with the CCP.

For the many Taiwanese with business interests in China, this is a call for self-censorship and obedience to Beijing’s demands.

Goal Three: Propagate to Foreigners and Send Signals to Less-informed Audiences

China has always exploited the attention paid to it by foreign audiences. The paper, drawing international attention, is bound to have at least some elements of it repeated.

“No issue other than Taiwan is discussed in ways that approach the point of being so critical in terms of Chinese strategic interests that it indicates a willingness to escalate to any form of serious conflict,” interprets a think tank report by the Center for Strategic and International Security (CSIS).

“Actual ‘Taiwan separatists’ are ‘exceedingly few,’ the report insists. Rather, it is the ‘interference of outside powers’ causing the problem,” writes China strategist Ben Lowson in The Diplomat. 

“China Says it’s Ready for War if the U.S. Keeps Pushing for Taiwanese Independence,” titled an article on Vice. “Beijing is accusing the U.S., which recently approved a $2.2 billion arms sale to Taiwan, of destabilizing the region,” the article subtitles.

As much as the United States media attempts to present a balanced view of the situation, any repetition or interpretation of the white paper inadvertently proliferates elements of propaganda. For the average reader not acquainted with Taiwan’s situation, the complexity of its political status, and China’s narrative dominance even in American publications, this repetition only helps Beijing instill its message of coercion.

China has already actively embarked on a campaign to bring journalists to Beijing and influence them to tell stories from Beijing’s perspective. The propaganda on Taiwan in this paper most likely seeks to use the influence of avid China-watchers and writers into propagators and legitimizers of China’s aggressive intentions and regime rule.

Strongman Rhetoric and Speaking Against the Reality

Overall, the claims, threats, and propaganda directed at Taiwan outlined in the paper reflects little upon political realities in Taiwan. Strongman language used in the paper that seeks to portray China, the Chinese Communist Party, and the People’s Liberation Army as something greater than it actually is reflects upon the party’s insecurity about its rule.

Despite the fact that the Communist Party made the snap decision to end all permits for independent travel by PRC citizens to Taiwan in late July ahead of Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election, Beijing still insists that the DPP is the side raising tension and hostility. Although the CCP clearly recognizes the overwhelming strength of its military compared to that of Taiwan’s, it still attempts to portray Taiwan as a sort of renegade province occupied by ambiguously-labeled rebels. And although President Tsai of the DPP party had just won a presidential primary race against a more pro-Independence candidate, the administration under control of her party is still accused of “pushing for de jure independence.”

China does not seek “hegemony, expansion, or spheres of influence,” the paper declares, seemingly contradictory to the threats it has made in the paper.  

“China’s Xi Says Communist Party Ready To Struggle Against Challenges In Hong Kong, Taiwan,” reported International Business Times on Xi Jinping’s September speech to the Chinese Communist Party School. As the party’s legitimacy declines in peripheries such as Hong Kong and Xinjiang, Xi’s rhetoric perhaps shows that stronger words are needed in times of crisis.

The call to party school cadres by Xi to prepare for “struggle” (dòuzhēng, 鬥爭), alluding to a term popularly used by Mao to quash internal opposition in the party, shows that the party is likely experiencing infighting as clear opposition emerges in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Taiwan in response to the party’s authoritarian and oppressive rule.

“The Taiwan question originated in a weak and ravaged China, and it will definitely end with China’s rejuvenation!” declared Xi in his January Speech on the 40th Anniversary of the Issuance of the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan.

2019 is a strange time in Beijing. As the party starts facing challenges as it attempts to resist the need for political changes in China, it continues to use strong rhetoric that resembles little of the political reality around the world.

It will remain a question of how long it will take for the rest of the world to wake up to the reality of the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian and oppressive rule. Beijing is now in a constantly weakening position as it fails to handle unrest in Hong Kong, resolve trade issues with Washington, and silence support for those oppressed under totalitarian rule in Xinjiang. 

For Taiwan, an election is coming up in 2020 to show to the rest of the world that the island will continue to exercise its democratic values and remain free from Beijing’s grasp. Beijing will continue to propagate its vision to its own people, those in Taiwan, and the rest of the world. Though often marginalized on the world stage of politics, Taiwan can continue the narrative battle against Beijing’s word by pointing across the Taiwan Strait to the real threat present in the region.

(Cover photo by US Navy, Public Domain)