Thread by @WilliamYang120

Thread - How entrenched is China's infiltration into #Taiwan's local media? One perfect example is the massive acquisition of radio stations broadcasting in Taiwanese in southern #Taiwan.

These stations are traditionally tailored towards farmers, service industry people and factory workers in southern Taiwan, and most of the listeners are over the age of 60, according to my interview with Dr. Wang Hong-zen.

As a regular listener of these radio stations, Dr. Wang started picking up news stories about Taiwanese businessmen setting up booths at trade shows across #China and how successful their businesses have become since they joined these trade shows.

Additionally, hosts from these radio stations started to openly share their "exchange programs" to different Chinese cities, while many of these stations' owners are invited to attend the "Cross-Strait Media Forum" in #China.

On May 31, one of the most popular hosts from these stations openly endorsed Han Kuo-yu to run for president, and his reasoning is "the reason why Kaohsiung's municipal affairs remain stuck was that the central government couldn't help Mayor Han kick off his programs."

The endorsement came one day before Han Kuo-yu's first major rally for the 2020 race in Taipei. These Taiwanese radio stations help form a virtual community for all these older Taiwanese people in southern Taiwan, who almost exclusively use Taiwanese in everyday lives.

While hosts normally don't talk about politics on the shows, they would start expressing some opinions when it's getting close to the election, and listeners normally internalize whatever they hear on air, making them the prime target for China's infiltration campaign.

You may wonder why is this particular case so important to prove the effectiveness of #China's infiltration campaign in Taiwan. By overcoming the linguistic barrier, China has gradually turned a group of Taiwanese that may traditionally be more pro-DPP into more pro-#China.

This is something that the pro-China KMT has been struggling to accomplish over the last 2 decades, but #China has quietly accomplished a difficult task by acquiring many of these radio stations that might be considered outdated by mainstream society in #Taiwan.

These listeners, who form the backbone of these radio stations, are now some of the most loyal supporter of Han Kuo-Ty’s bid for the 2020 presidential election, and such change proves why China’s infiltration campaign in Taiwan can seriously impact the upcoming election outcome.