Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) has been nominated as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate for a legislative by-election in Taipei. The seat belonged to Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), who was voted Taipei mayor last month. Her sole rival for the position is the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Enoch Wu (吳怡農).

Wang said she already knows how she would attack Wu. Wu said he would run a clean campaign, focusing only on the issues, and steering clear of gossip and smearing his opponent.

Voters in the nine-in-one local elections on Nov. 26 did not regard the China issue as the most important concern when casting their ballots, despite Beijing’s best efforts. The Information Operations Research Group uncovered a lot of disinformation spread by China this year in its attempts to sway voters with its rhetoric on “war” and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Disinformation regarding war might be more effective in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. In a report released on Saturday based on a review of more than 8 million Facebook posts, 6,000 news articles from Taiwan, 2,000 official releases from China regarding Taiwan affairs, 800,000 posts on Chinese social media and 50,000 TikTok videos this year found that “war” and “pandemic” were the two top issues involved when information was manipulated.