TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As China does not yet have the means to successfully seize Taiwan, the communist country has employed propaganda and fake news to win support for unification, Asahi Shimbun reported Monday (Jan. 24).

Even though China sent military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on an almost daily basis, it is not able to win a full-blown war, Taiwan news site Newtalk reported. Any miscalculation might not only result in the communist regime losing its hold on China itself, but also force Taiwan into officially declaring its independence, per Asahi Shimbun.

Therefore, Beijing is trying to persuade public opinion in Taiwan to support unification with China “to win Taiwan without war.” The strategy includes economic pressure, measures to lure Taipei’s diplomatic allies, and the use of fake news, Asahi Shimbun said.

At the height of Taiwan’s COVID-19 surge last May, Beijing tried to take advantage of the Taiwanese public's dissatisfaction over the slow pace of vaccination by emphasizing how it supplied free doses to Taiwan businesspeople. The following month, it used the Internet to spread false reports that vaccine doses arriving in Taiwan from Japan were past their expiry date, but Taipei countered by approving laws banning the distribution of unfounded rumors about health issues.