Taiwan's top intelligence agency said on Sunday that its research shows how China is using Chinese IT and marketing companies to create fake news sites, manage accounts and collect and spread disinformation as part of its cognitive warfare against Taiwan.
The National Security Bureau (NSB) released its findings on Sunday in a recently completed analysis of the “People's Republic of China's cognitive warfare tactics against Taiwan in 2025“
In 2025, Taiwan's national intelligence team identified over 45,000 fake social media accounts and over 2.314 million pieces of disinformation spread through such tactics, the NSB report said.
This disinformation was spread by fake and/or bot accounts hired by Chinese IT companies that built databases and developed automated programs to manage them under the direction of the Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) of the PRC, according to the NSB.
The Central Propaganda Department and the MPS also use marketing companies such as Haixunshe, Haimai, and Huya to create fake news websites to spread narratives consistent with China's official positions.
Meanwhile, Beijing has supported the Chinese marketing company Wubianjie Group in running “content farms“ through Facebook fan pages that post sensational articles to attract clicks, according to the NSB.
After attracting followers with clickbait and light content, their posts are directed at political topics with the aim of influencing public sentiment in Taiwan, the service said.
In this way, China aims to deepen internal divisions in Taiwan, weaken Taiwanese people's will to resist, influence allies' willingness to support Taiwan in times of need, and win support among the Taiwanese population for the PRC, the NSB added.
To counter Beijing's cognitive warfare, the NSB said it is working closely with relevant government institutions and is stepping up cooperation efforts with fact-checking organizations and social media operators, urging them to expose and remove false information.
At the international level, the NSB said it has held more than 80 security dialogues and exchange conferences in the past year. of intelligence with international partners to expand the network of cooperation in the democratic community against China's cognitive warfare.