China uses fake news sites, accounts to spread misinformation against Taiwan: NSB

Taipei, Jan. 11 (CNA) Taiwan's top intelligence agency on Sunday said its research shows that China has been using Chinese IT and marketing companies to create fake news sites, manage accounts, and collect and spread misinformation, as part of its cognitive warfare against Taiwan.

The National Security Bureau (NSB) on Sunday released its findings in a recently completed analysis on the People's Republic of China's (PRC) "cognitive warfare tactics against Taiwan in 2025."

In 2025, Taiwan's national intelligence gathering team identified over 45,000 fake social media accounts and over 2.314 million pieces of disinformation being spread using such tactics, the NSB said in its report.

This disinformation was spread by fake and/or bot accounts hired by Chinese IT companies that have set up databases and are developing automated programs to manage them, under the instruction of the PRC's Central Publicity Department and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), according to the NSB.

The Central Publicity Department and the MPS also utilize marketing companies such as Haixunshe, Haimai, and Huya to create fake news websites to spread narratives aligned with China's official stances.

Meanwhile, Beijing has supported the Chinese marketing company Wubianjie Group in operating content farms via Facebook fan pages that tend to post sensational articles to attract clicks, according to the NSB.

After attracting followers with clickbait soft content, their posts pivoted to political ones to influence Taiwanese public perception, the NSB said.

In so doing, China aims to achieve its goals of deepening internal divisions within Taiwan, weakening Taiwanese people's will to resist, influencing allies' willingness to support Taiwan when in need, and winning support among Taiwanese people for the PRC's gain, the NSB added.

To counter the PRC's cognitive warfare, the NSB said it was working closely with related government units and was beefing up efforts to cooperate with fact-checking organizations and social media platform operators, urging them to duly disclose and take down false information.

On the global front, the NSB said over the past year, it held over 80 security dialogues and intelligence-sharing conferences with international partners, to expand the network of cooperation in the democratic community to counter China's cognitive warfare.