Chinese state media stoked allegation Taiwan's president would flee war: Report

Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen visit army bases ahead of Lunar New Year in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Feb 6, 2024. if war erupts with China, according to an unsubstantiated report first published in 2021 and echoed in the run-up to the island's January 2024 general election.

IORG is a non-partisan group of social scientists and data analysts funded by academic institutions and organisations supported financially by Britain and the United States. The analysis of text articles and videos published between April 2021 and Jan 13, 2024, was conducted with data-processing technologies that enabled IORG to identify the origins of certain narratives and related keywords.

Beijing has insisted on an eventual"reunification" with Taiwan, which the CCP has never ruled, into"one China". It has not renounced the use of force to achieve that aim.Stories portraying the DPP leadership as warmongers who would flee in the event of conflict became talking points in Taiwan and were used by some media outlets and opposition politicians to criticise the DPP.

Taiwan's defence ministry said in a Mar 7 report to parliament that Beijing had used state media and"local collaborators" to spread narratives that would weaken confidence in the government. It did not name the alleged collaborators. Fujian Daily Press Group and the other media outlets mentioned in this story did not return requests for comment.

The narrative that Taiwan's leadership would flee by plane originated in a Jun 10, 2021, Fujian Daily story, IORG found. The newspaper called a US military C-17 transport plane, which had visited Taiwan that month, a"runaway plane" for Taiwan's leadership.

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