CCP paired Taiwan drills with cyberattacks, cognitive warfare: NSB

Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) Taiwan's National Security Bureau (NSB) said that between Dec. 29 and Jan. 2 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) paired military drills against Taiwan with information operations and cyberattacks, spreading more than 19,000 "controversial" messages and launching millions of hacking intrusions.

In a report submitted to the Legislative Yuan, the NSB said the online activity involved 799 abnormal accounts and focused on amplifying skepticism about the United States, Taiwan's military and President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), referring to concerns about Taiwan's ability to defend itself.

Cyber intrusions targeting government networks increased during the exercises, reaching about 2.08 million attacks on the first day of the drills and increasing to about 2.09 million on the second day, the agency said.

The Legislature's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee has invited the NSB, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Coast Guard Administration to brief lawmakers on Thursday.

Its written report on the drills and related security threats had already been delivered to legislators ahead of the committee session.

In its report, the NSB said the CCP launched the drills to counter support for Taiwan from international democratic allies, divert attention from domestic problems and portray military strength as unaffected by anti-corruption efforts.

China is facing weak economic momentum, citing declining investment, reduced foreign investment, high youth unemployment and rising labor protests over unpaid wages, it said.

The CCP used targeted drills against Taiwan to redirect public dissatisfaction toward nationalist sentiment framed as resistance to external interference, the agency said.

The NSB said Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) expanded an anti-corruption crackdown after the National People's Congress sessions, targeting the Fujian clique within the military and leading to investigations and punishments of senior officers that affected major annual exercises.

The NSB said the CCP sought to project military strength by highlighting nuclear deterrence at the Sept. 3 military parade, promoting new vessels such as the Fujian aircraft carrier and Sichuan amphibious assault vessel, and deploying carrier groups including the Liaoning aircraft carrier and landing helicopter dock Hainan on long-range missions.

The NSB said newly appointed Eastern Theater Command commander Yang Zhibin (楊志斌) later oversaw targeted drills against Taiwan to show that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was not affected by the anti-corruption campaign.

The NSB said the drills featured compound threats including military and gray-zone coercion, cognitive warfare and cyberattacks, with "controversial" content concentrated on platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Threads and X.

The NSB said cybersecurity agencies in the Indo-Pacific, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union have repeatedly identified the CCP as a major source of global cyber threats, with PLA cyberwarfare groups APT24 and BlackTech the most active during the drills.