TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As tensions between China and Taiwan remain high, over 100 “books” written with bad grammar and plagiarized content have appeared on Amazon on the topic of Taiwan-China relations and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit.
Camphor Press Publisher Michael Cannings shared his observation on Twitter by writing, “New disinformation push on Amazon? A torrent of new low-quality ‘books’ about Taiwan has appeared; a quick Google shows at least some of the content is plagiarized, and the names of the authors appear to be fake. I count 61 of these under one search term alone.”
Cannings noted that many of these books, published within the last week, mention Pelosi in their titles and have a strong pro-China bias. He added that the language in the books “changes from perfect English to passages riddled with grammatical errors and back again.”
(Amazon screenshot)
To illustrate his point about the books featuring plagiarized content, Cannings compared a passage from a The ASEAN Post article to one from “China Invasion of Taiwan,” one of the recently published books. He wrote that some synonyms have been switched, likely as a way to dodge plagiarism filters.
The original text on The ASEAN Post cited by Cannings read, “China's consistent position has been that it seeks ‘peaceful reunification’ with Taiwan – something that Gen Wei reiterated on Sunday – and that it would only act if faced with a provocation.” Meanwhile, a paragraph in “China Invasion of Taiwan” read, “China’s persistent posture has been that it favors ‘peaceful reunification’ with Taiwan – something that Gen Wei reaffirmed on Sunday – and that it would only intervene if confronted with a provocation.”
After investigating the matter, Taiwan News found 120 books published on Amazon that fit Cannings’ description between July 29 and Friday (Aug. 5) under the search term “Taiwan.” The books’ prices ranged between US$1.99 and US$13.99 while their lengths ranged approximately between 17-81 pages.
The cover of "China, Taiwan and the United States: The rising tensions and a relationship crack approaching" resembles a romance novel. (Amazon screenshot)
The author of "The China and Taiwan Conflict Paradox" is listed as George Orwell. (Amazon screenshot)
Most of the books’ covers were designed with basic fonts and images of Pelosi or China, Taiwan, and the U.S. flags. One in particular, however, seemed to present itself as a romance novel, presenting the title, “China, Taiwan, and the United States” in twirly red font over the black and white image of two pairs of hands holding each other.
The books’ titles, like their description and content, tried hard to come off as typical of political and academic publications, but in most cases failed to do so. The bizarre language used is highlighted by a title reading, “Nancy Pelosi Arrives Taiwan: Guide How US House Speaker Pelosi arrives in Taiwan, defying Beijing” and the introduction to “Pelosi and Taiwan : Will the US anger China for forceful reunification?” which read, “Nancy Pelosi visit to Taiwan have stirred the Chinese people to react to her actions. The White House was debating on the issue as Joe Biden and the president ix jinping of China had a argumentative conversation over the Twain and China controversy.”
The books’ descriptions not only betrayed issues with the language, but plagiarism as well. The description for “Taiwan: china surrounding Taiwan,” supposedly written by Mara J. Collins, revealed itself to be a work of plagiarism by including the sentence, “By drawing on primary materials, surveys, and in-depth interviews with Taiwanese thought leaders, Syaru Shirley Lin depicts the global pushback against economic liberalization and regional economic integration while illuminating one of the most unstable and deadly partnerships in modern times.”
An excerpt of “Nancy Pelosi: Everything You Need To Know About Madam Speaker.” (Amazon screenshot)
Pelosi's Wikipedia page. (Wikipedia screenshot)
A quick online search revealed Syaru Shirley Lin (林夏如) to be a senior fellow at U.S. think tank Brookings Institution with a specialization in world politics. However, not all authors took the time to look up political authorities and academics; content featured in the preview of “Nancy Pelosi: Everything You Need To Know About Madam Speaker” showed striking similarities to Pelosi’s Wikipedia page, with some replacement synonyms.
In response to the phenomenon, Atlantic Council fellow Jessica Drun (莊宛樺) tweeted, “Amazon needs to up its quality control. There’s definitely renewed interest in learning more about Taiwan right now.” She then went on to compile several reading lists consisting of publications on the topic of Taiwan from reputable sources for those wishing to study the subject.
