Translation | Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs talks about the key points of this election

Wu Zhaoxie said that this vote is a frontline battle in the global battle between democracy and authoritarianism.

The original article was published on January 3, 2024, in The Economist

As Taiwanese voters prepare to cast their votes in the presidential and legislative elections on January 13, the vote will once again be fought between hybrid warfare [1] and the secret influence of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is carried out in the shadows - the latter is ready to undermine the rules-based international order and expand its global influence.

Since Taiwan’s first direct presidential election in 1996 [2] , it has held seven rounds of presidential elections, during which it has experienced three peaceful changes in the ruling party. After Taiwan successfully transformed from an authoritarian system to a democratic government, democratic values ​​have been deeply rooted in the hearts of Taiwanese people for many years. Because of this narrative of success, international organizations often rate Taiwan's freedom, democracy, and human rights as the best in Asia.

The stakes in this upcoming election are much higher than ever before—not just for Taiwan, but for democratic communities around the world. As several of Taiwan's major political parties and candidates prepare for the final days of campaigning, China has made unprecedented efforts to intervene in Taiwan's democratic process. Chinese military aircraft continue to fly over the central line of the Taiwan Strait, reminding voters that war is still possible. Just before Christmas, China announced that it would cancel tariff reductions on some petrochemical products from Taiwan, warning voters of the economic challenges it was likely to face.

The Chinese authorities have not tried to conceal their purpose of carrying out military threats and trade manipulation. The message they want to send is clear: Taiwanese voters must give up voting for the currently ruling Democratic Progressive Party candidates Lai Ching-te and Hsiao Meiqin, or wait and see. Bar. The naked language makes it clear that the Beijing government is not worried about being seen as a manipulator of Taiwan's national elections.

What is even more blatant but not surprising is that the Chinese representatives in Taiwan have carried out various harmful actions, established various fake organizations and news websites, created untrue public opinion polls, and used thousands of fake social media accounts to manipulate public discussions. and public opinion. China invites Taiwan's grassroots elected officials to visit China, a process that includes instilling in them which side they should support in the election. Taking advantage of Taiwan's openness, China floods Taiwan with overwhelming disinformation and intensifies its online war operations. It attempts to induce the Taiwanese people to accept its narrative and win over a critical minority of voters whose intentions are wavering. With the current election campaign in a stalemate and China's efforts to spare no efforts in power, this attempt is likely to succeed in the end.

China's behavior and its potential for further destruction have never been ignored. In December, the New York Times quoted a U.S. national security official as saying that China could take significant actions, including using artificial intelligence, to spread disinformation and influence elections in democracies. It is a recognized fact that Taiwan serves as a testing ground for China’s ambitions to exert its malign influence overseas. In this regard, Taiwan is at the forefront of resistance to China’s authoritarian expansion.

After creating an Orwellian surveillance state at home [3] , China has turned its attention to other countries, trying to guide the election results of other countries in a direction that is beneficial to itself. If Taiwan's freedom is weakened, the common values ​​of democratic countries around the world will be profoundly affected; and since Taiwan plays an important role in the international supply chain, especially in the most advanced semiconductors, it will also have a significant impact on the global economic boom. .

If China really achieves its goal of influencing the results of Taiwan's election, it will apply the same strategy to other democracies, thus promoting an international order that is more to its liking. Democratic countries must not allow this to happen. Taiwan’s general election on January 13 is only one of forty free and fair national elections in the world in 2024. Authoritarian forces will never be allowed to affect the results of any democratization process.

In the past few years, especially after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, democratic countries have shown more concern about peace and stability issues across the Taiwan Strait, warning China not to unilaterally change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan sincerely appreciates the statements of support issued by the Group of Seven Major Industrial Countries (g7), the European Union (the EU), the US-Japan-South Korea summit held at Camp David in the United States last August, and other international conferences . As Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, I call on the international community to pay more attention to China’s intentions to suppress Taiwan’s democracy through influence and hybrid warfare, including cyber attacks and information disinformation. Although these methods may not seem so drastic, for China, they are more effective and less costly than using force or threats to change the status quo on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan is taking measures to counter China's interference and recording its experience. The analysis report will consult international experts and publish it quickly after the election. We hope that this will provide an opportunity for fellow democracies to learn from each other when dealing with the evil influence of authoritarianism. We want to transform Taiwan's experience into a positive contribution to a rules-led international order, thereby helping the free world fight authoritarian forces bent on weakening democratic systems. We firmly believe that democracy will prevail.

*Joseph Wu is Taiwan’s current Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[1] Translation Note: In response to modern technology and changes in countries around the world, the pattern of war is also constantly changing. The so-called "hybrid warfare" refers to the use of a variety of techniques to attack other countries, including information warfare, public opinion propaganda, economic warfare, mass warfare, guerrilla warfare, diplomacy, terrorist attacks, etc. Huang Baiqin's article "New Type of War - "Hybrid Warfare" Impact and Response" provides a concise and clear summary and explanation of the concept of "hybrid warfare". You can refer to it.

[2] Translation Note: Direct presidential election is the primary practice of the core concept of democratic government - "the president of a country is elected by all citizens."

[3] The allusion comes from George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984".

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Citation

1. Lawless. J. (2024, January 10). Over 50 countries go to the polls in 2024. The year will test even the most robust democracies. Associated Press.

2. Huang Baiqin: "New Type of War—"Hybrid War" Impact and Response" , "National Defense Magazine", Volume 34, Issue 2, June 2019, pp. 45-68.

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Extended reference

1. There is an interesting short article in the "Education" section of National Geographic Magazine that explains the origin of the word democracy. To put it simply, democracy is made up of the two ancient Greek words demos (people) and kratos (domination), and Athens is the birthplace of the democratic system. Seen from Democracy (Ancient Greece) .

2. In addition to Joseph Wu's letter, the Economist also published an article a few days ago , "A presidential candidate on why Taiwan needs a third way out," written by Taiwanese presidential candidate Ko Wen-je. way) , the Taiwan election in 2024 seems to have attracted considerable attention from Western media.

3. While revising this translation, I suddenly remembered that in the last few hours before the end of 2023, I stayed in a B&B with A and watched a Netflix movie calledLeave the World Behind . At the end of the film, the character GH played by Mahershala Ali said a passage, how shocking and clear the reality is before our eyes:

A simple three-stage strategy can overthrow a country's government from within.

The first stage is isolation. Cut off people's communication and transportation, making the target unable to communicate and paralyzed as much as possible, so that they can face the second stage, synchronized chaos. Intimidate them with covert attacks and disinformation to overwhelm their defenses and make their weapons systems unable to cope with extremists and their own troops. Without a clear enemy or motive, people will start turning on each other. If successful, phase three will unfold on its own.

What is the third stage? coup. civil war. Collapse.

This plan is considered the most cost-effective way to destabilize a country because if the target country is inoperable, it's basically a no-brainer. No matter who started it, they want us to finish it ourselves.

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