Taiwan has launched a platform aimed at encouraging citizens of mainland China to transmit confidential information, in particular via an AI-generated video. The Taiwanese authorities cite a climate of tension in China and claim to receive “an increasing number” of proposals from “informants”.
Taiwan has launched a platform aimed at Chinese citizens “who share the same democratic values” in order to collect confidential information about China from them. On the home page of the website opened by the National Security Bureau (NSB) there is a video produced using artificial intelligence (AI). A fictional Chinese official says that his colleagues disappear one after the other, targeted in turn by investigations.
In a press release dated Sunday, the intelligence service described “a general climate of tension which reigns under the Chinese totalitarian regime”. It claims that a “growing number” of individuals have approached the Taiwan authorities, “wishing to provide various types of information”, adds the NSB.
The Office explains that it was inspired by “practices adopted by intelligence agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel”. The NSB did not immediately respond to requests from AFP on Monday. Communist China considers the democratic island as part of its territory and threatens to use force to take control of it. For its part, Taipei accuses Beijing of spying at its expense.
Recent American examples
This example is not an isolated case: in recent years, attempts to recruit spies in China via the web have increased. The CIA recently stepped up its attempts to recruit spies in China by releasing a Mandarin-language video targeting disillusioned military officers.
Published on its YouTube channel, it features a fictional soldier criticizing his leaders and deciding to contact the American agency, an initiative which illustrates the growing use of the web for intelligence and which risks provoking the anger of China. The American agency had already broadcast videos last year aimed at recruiting Chinese officials, an initiative denounced by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a “pure political provocation”.
