Taiwanese influencers warned against making illegal pro-CCP content

Taipei, Dec. 8 (CNA) Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has reminded citizens that accepting funds or instructions from China to produce communist propaganda may violate Taiwan's national security laws, after a Taiwanese YouTuber highlighted the issue in a documentary released this week.

"Under the Anti-Infiltration Act, no one is allowed to take instructions, commissions or funding from hostile foreign forces to engage in activities that disrupt social order, spread false information or interfere with elections," the MAC said in a written statement released Saturday.

The top government department handling China-related affairs also said that "no cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in any form is allowed without the approval of [Taiwan's] authorities" according to Article 33-1 of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.

"Online influencers have become an important part of the CCP's cognitive warfare against Taiwan that must be taken seriously," the MAC said, adding that the government will take action if laws are found to have been violated.

Also on Saturday, Culture Minister Lee Yuan (李遠) urged Taiwanese to "cherish Taiwan's hard-earned freedom of speech" that he said had been "achieved through the sacrifices of victims who were imprisoned or lost their lives" -- a reference to Taiwan's 38-year martial law period that predated the country's democratization beginning in the 1980s.

"The Ministry of Culture is highly unlikely to restrict anyone's freedom of speech," Lee told reporters at Taiwan's National Human Rights Museum ahead of International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.

"But if an online influencer's statements have violated cross-strait laws or regulations, the ministry will discuss with the MAC on how to handle the situation," the minister added.

The issue of Taiwanese people using social media to potentially spread pro-CCP narratives came to the fore this week after a popular anti-CCP YouTuber, Pa Chiung (八炯), released a documentary on the topic of Chinese influence operations that has already garnered more than a million views since Friday.

In the 40-minute video, Pa Chiung interviewed Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳伯源), who described how he once worked with government agencies in China to promote his music before realizing that he was being used to support a pro-unification agenda.

Though he denied receiving funding, Chen said he received guidance from China's United Front Work Department (UFWD), a high-level CCP organization tasked with influence operations.

"The communist party is everywhere," Chen said. "If you like Chinese culture, when you are well-known, they will come put you on stage with five-starred red flags everywhere."

In the documentary, Chen calls a Chinese state media outlet, "the Strait Herald" (海峽導報), pretending he wishes to collaborate as a pro-China influencer, with the newspaper's director apparently offering to provide "resources" and mentioning Chung Ming-hsuan (鍾明軒), a Taiwanese content creator with around 1.25 million followers on YouTube.

On social media platform Threads, however, Chung suggested that he had been unfairly represented in the documentary and that his "travel videos" were self-funded.