ANALYSIS/PLA propaganda aimed at Chinese people, little impact in Taiwan: Experts

Taipei, April 3 (CNA) The People's Liberation Army's (PLA) large-scale joint exercises around Taiwan on Tuesday were accompanied by strident propaganda comparing itself to a mighty monkey warrior in Chinese mythology and Taiwan's president to a parasite, but experts say these messages were primarily meant for domestic audiences and lost on the people in Taiwan.

The PLA Eastern Theater Command on April 1, when it announced the start of the exercises, released two videos on the Chinese Sina Weibo microblogging website.

In one of the videos, the PLA compared its air and naval forces to the mighty Monkey King from the Chinese literary classic "Journey to the West" (西遊記).

The video also included graphics from the hit Chinese video game "Black Myth: Wukong," which was inspired by the novel, juxtaposed with aggressive footage of PLA forces targeting Taiwan's iconic Taipei 101 skyscraper and footage of what appeared to be the Wan Chun Fleet -- a fleet of CM-32 armored vehicles designated to protect Taiwan's president during major crises or emergencies -- cruising on Taipei's Hankou Street.

Another video shows a cartoon of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) depicted as a parasite held by its captor against the backdrop of a burning Taiwan ravaged by PLA forces.

The videos were likely meant to "appease" the Chinese people after recent events, including the deportation of Chinese national Liu Zhenya (劉振亞) a vlogger who often advocated the "military takeover" of Taiwan by China, Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at Tamkang University Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, told CNA.

China also wants to placate public discontent about sweeping policies that Lai laid out to resist Chinese attempts to eliminate Taiwan's sovereignty and divide public opinion on the matter, Liu said.

Lai in March announced 17 measures resisting China's attempts to bring Taiwan into its fold, including strengthening defense capabilities and economic security, and creating "action plans" to collaborate with Taiwan's friends and diplomatic allies in demonstrating Taiwan's firm rejection of China's attempts to eliminate Taiwan's sovereignty.

Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at Taiwan's government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, agreed that the videos were primarily "internal propaganda" to galvanize the "little pinks," a nickname for ethnocentric, unification-minded Chinese youths, amid recent reports of arrests of high-ranking PLA officials.

These include Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission He Weidong (何衛東) and PLA Eastern Theater Command Commander Lin Xiangyang (林向陽), both of whom are perceived as loyalists of Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平).

On top of that, Su said, China's uncertain economic outlook amid a heated trade war with the United States, as evidenced by a recent meeting between Xi and over 40 executives of international corporations on March 28 in a bid to attract foreign investment, could also explain the need to divert public attention.

The videos had a secondary objective: to wage psychological warfare against Taiwanese people and, with the help of "local collaborators" of the Chinese Communist Party, influence public opinion in Taiwan, Lin said.

However, Lin argued that this will likely have a "limited effect," as "you're unlikely to change how you perceive yourself just because of those videos."

Su, meanwhile, said if the propaganda had also targeted the Taiwanese public, it had failed completely on that front, as Taiwan's stock exchange proved unperturbed by the drills.

The Taiex, the Taiwan Stock Exchange's weighted index, ended up 584.27 points, or 2.82 percent on Monday, the first day of the two-day drills, and 18.05 points, or 0.08 percent, the next day.

"This showed that even the investors, who are usually most sensitive to potentially adverse outside factors, did not seem to care much about the drills," Su said.

Regarding whether Taiwanese media should proactively report on such heavy-handed Chinese propaganda, given that not many people in Taiwan follow state-run CCP mouthpieces, Sung Wen-Ti (宋文笛), a sessional lecturer at Australian National University, argued that it should do so to build up the public's resiliency against propaganda.

"Democracies thrive on the free flow of information to create a more informed and resilient citizenry, as resiliency comes from exposure therapy, not protective bubbles," Sung said.

"What democracies need is a counterbalance against propaganda with better information, so as to build information literacy and immunity," Sung added.

Lin also said that the Taiwanese media should still report on the PLA rhetoric, provided that it provides factual information to counter any unfounded claims in propaganda to avoid "perpetuating disinformation."