Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: 攝徒日記八炯/Facebook
A VIDEO BY anti-CCP influencer Pa Chiung and former pro-CCP rapper Chen Po-yuan released late last month once again drawn public attention to Chinese United Front activity directed at Taiwan.
The video is a follow-up to a preceding video released by Chiung and Chen released earlier this month. The first video detailed how Chinese United Front activity makes use of Taiwanese influencers such as Chen.
In particular, Chen previously produced nationalistic hip-hop videos supportive of the CCP and their claims over Taiwan. Since then, however, Chen’s views on China have soured after being scammed out of money by another influencer, deciding to turn on his former collaborators.
In the first video, Chen arranges for a tour of China subsidized by the Chinese government, so as to contribute to positive views of China in Taiwan. The second video details this tour, which aims to produce videos that are not explicitly political, but still implicitly aim to depict China in a positive light.
The first video accumulated 2.9 million views in three weeks. Within one day, the second video has accumulated 1.4 million views.
What the Taiwanese public seemed surprised to observe in the first video was that Chinese United Front activity takes the form of a large bureaucratic apparatus. Likewise, the public reacted in shock that producing pro-CCP content has become a market in which Taiwanese influencers operate, in seeking various money-making opportunities.
The second video shows Chen visiting various sites set up through the United Front for Taiwanese entrepreneurs to have opportunities, as part of various efforts by the Chinese government to win over Taiwanese start-ups and young entrepreneurs. Chen and Chiung also highlight how China frames Taiwan’s Indigenous history as part of Chinese history, seeing as Chiung is Taroko.
To this extent, the individuals Chen meets show him how easy it is for Taiwanese people to obtain a Chinese national ID. As Chen claimed to his former collaborators that he was short on money and needed work opportunities, some suggest to him that he could apply for a Chinese national ID to obtain vehicles or other property to use as collateral, and that they would provide him with opportunities for running import-export businesses.
Pa Chiung (left) and Chen Po-yuan (right). Photo credit: 攝徒日記八炯/Facebook
Otherwise, controversy ensued because Chen visited the offices of the Straits Herald, a Fujian-based state media publication whose outreach is mostly directed toward Taiwan, in the video. At their offices, Chen sees plaques signed by individuals from the KMT such as Hung Hsiu-chu, Han Kuo-yu, and Ko Wen-je of the TPP. James Soong of the New Party is identified as having a leadership role in United Front efforts by Straits Herald staff. When Chen claims that he hopes to run for office, he is told that he should run as a New Party or KMT candidate. The Straits Herald has since been permanently banned from stationing reporters in Taiwan.
Soong has denied participating in Chinese United Front efforts, though there was recently a wave of public anger against him over claims that Taiwanese Indigenous have no history and do not exist, seeing as Taiwan is a desert island.
The KMT hit out after the video, claiming that Pa Chiung and Chen Po-yuan are simply allies of the DPP. To troll the KMT, Chiung and Chen later applied to join the KMT as party members, only to be refused by the party on the justification that the party does not accept either individuals who are pro-CCP or pro-Taiwanese independence, and Chen was a pro-CCP influencer before his recent change of heart..
As obtaining a PRC national ID requires one to forgo one’s ROC national ID, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has stated that it will look into the claims made in the video. It is improbable that the MAC did not already know this was taking place, but what has alarmed is that 100,000 Taiwanese may already hold Chinese national IDs.
Some politicians, particularly at the lizhang or borough chief level, have been reported to hold Chinese national IDs. Such individuals will be required to forfeit their Chinese national IDs or give up office. Yet some members of the KMT, such as Kinmen legislator Chen Yu-chen, have sought to dispute the claims of the videos by suggesting that Chiung and Chen had mistaken other forms of Chinese government ID for national IDs.
More generally, what the video depicted was already known, but seeing it illustrated in visual form may have elicited a stronger response from the Taiwanese public. That the MAC only is able to take action against activities that were already known to take place after a public outcry from influencers reflects how difficult it has been to take action against Chinese influence when pro-unification views have long existed as an acceptable view in Taiwanese politics.