Shen Boyang pointed out that since Russia invaded Crimea, it has started an information war against Ukraine to “raise” its audience. Picture: Taken from the official website of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (file photo)
In addition to ground warfare, the Russian-Ukrainian war also included mixed warfare with information warfare. Experts point out that before Russia invaded Ukraine, it had launched an information war to “raise” its audience. This move is very similar to the current CCP’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan.
Shen Boyang, an assistant professor at the Institute of Criminology at Taipei University, said yesterday (11) that since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Russia has begun to implement a hybrid war against Ukraine, and its effectiveness has gradually gained results from 2019 to 2022.
Shen Boyang explained that Russia’s information war has gradually achieved results, not only by spreading pro-Russian remarks, but by attacking Ukraine’s ruling party, and using referendums and other acts to change the status quo and create divisions, so as to consume Ukraine’s economic and social resources and make Ukrainian people have a sense of distrust of the West.
“These practices are very similar to the CCP’s, and they are basically the same as the current CCP’s information attack on Taiwan.” Shen Boyang pointed out that China’s information war is mainly about anti-US, anti-Japanese, vilifying Western countries, imperialist expansion, etc., the same as Russia’s.
Shen Boyang continued to point out that on the eve of the Russian-Ukrainian war in early 2022, Russia continued to launch hacking attacks on the Ukrainian government, creating false information about politicians, fake protests, etc., and hacking banks. The highest level of disinformation produced by Russia was not during the war, but in the months before the war, in order to “raise” the disinformation audience before the war.
There is a similar situation in Taiwan, such as the “Tsai Ing-wen Support Association” and “Lai Qingde Support Association”, which have tens of thousands of people on Facebook. They usually praise Taiwan’s excellent epidemic prevention policies, but after the outbreak in May last year, it was the first Bo created a high-end vaccine conspiracy theories community. Shen Boyang emphasized that everything the CCP has done is to undermine Taiwanese trust in the United States.
Shen Boyang worries that if the Taiwanese people do not establish an “enemy and self-awareness”, they will easily be breached in the information war. Moreover, unlike Ukraine, many people in Taiwan are willing to surrender to China. Therefore, it is very important for Taiwan to establish a psychological defense.