China Attempts to Sway Intl Public Opinion Using Social Media for Cognitive Warfare

By Masatsugu Sonoda / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

7:11 JST, March 24, 2026

TAIPEI — China has been unfolding cognitive warfare campaigns using social media in an attempt to sway international public opinion in its favor and sow social divisions.

Within the Chinese Communist Party, the Central Propaganda Department and the United Front Work Department are believed to be playing pivotal roles in operations of this kind. The former generates propaganda while the latter seeks to recruit supporters within target societies to sow internal divisions.

Embassies, consulates general and other diplomatic missions abroad, as well as state-controlled media, also function as outlets for the distribution of propaganda.

Taiwan is a primary target for China. The shared use of the Chinese language and high cultural affinity between the two make it easy for Beijing to carry out such operations.

Posts supporting pro-China candidates circulated during the 2024 Taiwan presidential election and the election for the chairperson of the main opposition Kuomintang in October 2025.

At the end of December, during the Chinese military’s large-scale “Justice Mission 2025” exercise which surrounded Taiwan, footage was posted on social media showing the area around the Taipei 101 skyscraper landmark allegedly filmed by a Chinese military drone.

It is believed that the move was aimed at demonstrating China’s capability to approach Taipei and exerting psychological pressure.

China also targeted Japan in 2023 when Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. released treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The Chinese government claimed the discharge would lead to environmental destruction, using the term “nuclear-contaminated water.”

State-run media outlets posted comments in English on social media, aiming to undermine Japan’s international credibility.

Regarding China’s cognitive warfare against Japan over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Diet remark, Shin Kawashima, a professor of international history in East Asia at the University of Tokyo, said the campaign “has not reached the point of significantly shaking support for the Takaichi administration.”

Noting that advanced artificial intelligence technology has made it easier to post in accurate Japanese, Kawashima warned that China’s ability to disseminate information is growing rapidly.

“The Japanese government should focus more on communicating its own narrative and further investigate what China is trying to do,” he urged.