China's interference in KMT election exposes deepening political manipulation across Taiwan, warns MAC minister

Taipei [Taiwan], October 18 : Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng has warned that Beijing's interference in Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang (KMT) chairperson election reflects a dangerous escalation in China's political influence campaigns.
Chiu stated that this meddling could ironically become the push Taiwan needs for stronger bipartisan collaboration to defend its democracy from Chinese disinformation, as reported by The Taipei Times.
According to The Taipei Times, several candidates contesting today's KMT chairperson race have accused China of manipulating the campaign through covert tactics. Chiu urged both the ruling and opposition parties to reach a shared understanding on enacting stricter laws against Beijing's propaganda operations, which he said threaten Taiwan's democratic foundations.
Chiu described China's "united front" strategies as highly adaptable. Once designed to pit the KMT and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) against each other, they now aim to divide the KMT internally. By allegedly supporting some candidates and undermining others, Beijing seeks to create factions within the opposition, pro-China, pro-local, pro-unification, and pro-democracy, illustrating its long-standing divide-and-rule strategy.
Chiu said that in previous elections, waves of fake news originating in China had been strategically deployed to manipulate public sentiment and incite political tension in Taiwan. The MAC chief stressed that Taiwan's government must take the lead in exposing these campaigns and bolstering public resilience against disinformation.
He welcomed the KMT's new willingness to support legislative action to protect Taiwan's democracy, saying that revisions to the National Security Act and the Anti-infiltration Act should be a joint effort rather than a partisan issue.
Chiu warned that Taiwan's openness to information makes it especially vulnerable to China's AI-generated fake content, while China's tightly censored Internet shields its citizens from such manipulation, as cited by The Taipei Times.
Chiu also called on tech companies, including Google, Meta, and Line, to assume greater responsibility for combating false information. He emphasised that improving citizens' media literacy is vital to counter Chinese psychological warfare.
Responding to claims by Hong Kong analyst Willy Lam that Chinese "united front" bodies directly control key KMT figures, Chiu said the MAC remains doubtful but stated confidence in Taiwanese politicians' loyalty to their homeland, as reported by The Taipei Times.