Exposing China’s Cognitive Warfare and Transnational Repression in Taiwan

From surveillance of politicians’ families to threats against public figures, China’s pressure tactics seek to spread fear and silence dissent. Cognitive warfare, says the Ministry of National Defense (MND), is the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) use of “political, economic, cultural, military and legal means, with the intent to divide internal unity and undermine social stability” in Taiwan.

Judicial Intimidation and Cross-Border Surveillance Targeting Taipei Officials

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has utilized legal mechanisms and foreign agents to exert psychological pressure on elected officials in Taiwan. PRC media in October last year reported that the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau had opened an investigation into Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen for “Taiwan independence” activities. This was a cognitive warfare ploy, designed to unsettle the targeted person and to establish the idea that it has legal jurisdiction over Taiwan and its people.

The intimidation extends beyond legal declarations into physical surveillance. Taipei prosecutors argued for an 18-month prison term for a private investigator Cheng Yung-chin, who was charged with violations of the Personal Data Protection Act, along with fellow investigator Hsieh Yi-chen and two others over the surveillance of Shen. Cheng was said to have accepted NT$360,000 (US$11,299) from two Hong Kong residents to surveil Shen. It should be noted that the team hired to surveil Puma Shen also tracked his daughter’s movements.

Yaita Akio, who was attacked in Taichung in July, stated on Twitter that violence on the PRC’s behalf is occurring regularly in democratic countries.

The Taichung District Prosecutors Office indicted Liao Gangfa on charges of assault, public insult and participation in a criminal organization, seeking a five-year sentence. Yaita highlighted a broader pattern of transnational repression, pointing to the surveilling of the son of President William Lai in the US, the attack on a Chinese restaurant named “Xi Jinping” in South Korea and the vandalism against the Kami Comedy Club. The planned ramming attack on the car of Taiwan Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim in Prague in March of 2024 was also noted.

Target / Incident	Location	PRC-Linked Action	Primary Objective
Legislator Puma Shen	Taiwan	Surveillance by private investigators funded by Hong Kong residents; Chongqing public security investigation	Instill fear and anxiety
President Lai’s Son	United States	Unregistered PRC agent surveilling family near Seattle	Remind Lai that his children could easily be targeted; stress him out with fear and anxiety
Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim	Czech Republic	Planned car-ramming attack in Prague (March 2024)	Cognitive warfare designed to suppress speech and actions inimical to PRC imperialism
Activist Yaita Akio	Taichung, Taiwan	Physical assault by Liao Gangfa	Cognitive warfare designed to suppress speech and actions inimical to PRC imperialism

Targeting Families and Manipulating Domestic Public Discourse

Beijing’s cognitive warfare relies heavily on targeting the families of prominent political figures. US authorities arrested a woman acting as an unregistered agent of China and surveilling President Lai’s son and his family near Seattle in September last year. While pro-PRC types on Twitter claimed that the purpose of the surveillance was to highlight the fact that Lai’s son lives in the US, the PRC’s allies in Taiwan, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its sock puppet, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have already done that.

This convergence of foreign surveillance and domestic political messaging forms a cognitive assault. By shifting the issue to what Lai was doing, the campaign conceals and downplays the actual reason for the surveillance. The purpose of the surveillance was simple: nothing messes with a target’s head more than threats to their children.

Coercion of Cultural Figures and the Hong Kong Governance Model

Cultural and business figures face similar pressure if they cross Beijing’s red lines. Television host Kevin Tsai appeared to be the target of cognitive warfare after he attended the opening of Puma Shen’s campaign headquarters. A PRC-military-affiliated account, called “Junzhengping,” attacked Tsai on social media, appearing to accuse him of “reaping profits in mainland China while flirting with Taiwan independence,” saying people like him would “pay an unbearable price.” The staunchly pro-KMT United Daily News (UDN) put out a commentary warning that Tsai could face “dual political and social death” in the PRC. UDN later took down the commentary.

Concurrently, Beijing has pushed narratives regarding the future governance of Taiwan through academic proxies. A South China Morning Post article, “Beijing’s policy advisers map out how post-reunification Taiwan could be governed,” Oct. 6, 2026, outlined policy proposals by PRC “scholars” detailing how a post-annexation Taiwan would be governed. Analysts emphasize that this messaging serves the continuing insistence that Taiwan will be governed as Hong Kong is. The proper model for Taiwan governance by the PRC isn’t Hong Kong but its treatment of the other would-be nations it has subjugated, Tibet and East Turkestan (Xinjiang).