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11 May, 4 tweets, 2 min read
A 7-month investigation by @AP & Oxford University's @oiioxford, found that China's rise on @Twitter has been powered by an army of fake accounts that have retweeted Chinese diplomats & state media tens of thousands of times.

money.yahoo.com/army-fake-fans…
"Beijing’s appetite for guiding public opinion – covertly, if necessary -- extends beyond its borders and beyond core strategic interests, like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang."
“You have a seismic, slow but large continental shift in narratives,” said Timothy Graham, a senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology who studies social networks. “Steer it just a little bit over time, it can have massive impact.”
Twitter and Facebook (both banned inside China) function as formidable – and one-sided – global megaphones for China’s ruling Communist Party, helping to amplify messaging broadly set by central authorities.

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More from @JeromeTaylor

Jerome Taylor Profile picture
11 May
I am in awe of my @AFP colleagues both inside and outside Myanmar who have worked tirelessly to provide accurate, verified and compelling coverage in what are truly difficult circumstances 💪🏼🇲🇲

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
Here are some of just a fraction of the remarkable images taken by @AFP colleagues over the last 100 days
Read 10 tweets
Jerome Taylor Profile picture
10 May
Breaking: Covid jab maker BioNTech says to build factory in Singapore -- @AFP
Covid jab maker BioNTech said Monday it would build a factory in Singapore that could produce hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines based on its mRNA technology per year in southeast Asia.
Construction of the manufacturing plant and a regional headquarters in Singapore will start this year, and the site could become operational by 2023, the German company said in a statement.
Read 4 tweets
Jerome Taylor Profile picture
26 Jan
Taiwan expelled nearly 4,000 Chinese vessels illegally dredging sand from its waters in 2020, authorities told @AFP, a more than six-fold increase on the year before as Beijing seeks to heap pressure on the democratic island.

ph.news.yahoo.com/taiwan-expelle…
This gets less interest than the surge of jet and bomber incursions last year but it is no less significant.

China has long used civilian boats & coastguard to press territorial claims in disputed waters & harass neighbouring vessels -- dubbed "grey zone" tactics.
In the South China Sea, fishing boats and dredgers were used as Beijing took and then built military installations on atolls and islands across the heavily contested waters.

As a result, China now controls significant chucks of the strategic sea.
Read 8 tweets
Jerome Taylor Profile picture
25 Jan
Pretty minimal coverage in Taiwanese media today on the arrest of alleged drug baron Tse Chi Lop despite the fact that Tse (acc to Aussie media) flew from Taiwan to Netherlands before his arrest & the fact that Taiwan-based Bamboo Union triad is part of Sam Gor network
Similarly, most Hong Kong media have simply run translations of wire copy.

Three HK triad groups are part of Sam Gor (14K, Wo Shing Wo, Sun Yee On) and much of the network are Cantonese origin -- Sam Gor means Brother Number Three in Cantonese, a reference to Tse
Tse was also able for years able to fly in & out of Macau where he often spent heavily at the city's casinos.

Not the first time major OC figures get little scrutiny for HK/Macau presence.

The (now sanctioned) Zhao Wei crime group once had registered businesses in HK/Macau
Read 4 tweets
Jerome Taylor Profile picture
24 Jan
For anyone interested in Asia’s drug trade this is huge news.

Tse Chi Lop is often compared to El Chapo.

But a better comparison would be Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo in terms of influence & being able to unite even rival organised crime groups.

bbc.com/news/world-asi…
Most of what the public knows about Tse and his Sam Gor cartel is thanks to @tom_allard who wrote this brilliant piece in 2019.

(Police had been quietly on Sam Gor’s tail for years)

reuters.com/investigates/s…
One of the things that is striking about Sam Gor is it managed to unite rival triad networks.

Among them are (Hong Kong origin) 14k; Wo Shing Wo and Sun Yee On; (Taiwan origin) Bamboo Union and (mainly Canada origin) Big Circle Boys.
Read 11 tweets
Jerome Taylor Profile picture
1 Aug 20
Interesting piece looking at some of the tensions within @SCMPNews newsroom as China tightens its grip on Hong Kong

theatlantic.com/international/…
“Journalists who spent hours, sometimes in a haze of tear gas saw their work drastically altered by editors before running in print & online. Police were typically portrayed as hero, the protesters villains, with little explanation or context of each side’s motives & grievances”
“At least three major Western news organizations, including the Times and The Wall Street Journal, are facing delays in securing new visas or visa renewals for their staff, according to people familiar with the details.”
Read 15 tweets

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