By Yimou Lee
TAIPEI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - China spread more than 2.5 million pieces of disputed or false online information targeting Taiwan in the first nine months of this year, the island's top intelligence agency said, accusing Beijing of stepping up operations ahead of local elections.
In a report to lawmakers this week, Taiwan's National Security Bureau said such information rose by about 48% in the first nine months of 2026 to more than 2.5 million items from more than 1.69 million a year earlier.
It said the China-originated content focused on energy, food security and defence policy, as well as the platforms and images of specific candidates, in an effort to influence Taiwan's elections for city mayors and county magistrates in November.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Beijing, which views Taiwan as its own territory over the island's objections, has previously denied interfering in Taiwanese elections or spreading disinformation.
Taiwan has repeatedly complained about what it sees as China's "grey-zone" tactics - from daily military drills to cyberattacks - at a time when Beijing is ramping up military and political pressure to force Taipei to accept its sovereignty claims.
The report said Beijing often created narratives through official media outlets before amplifying them through "online troll armies" and public relations firms to sow discord among Taiwanese people. It said the tactics included content farms, AI-generated videos, fake accounts and coordinated comment flooding.
"China has expanded the use of AI technology to manipulate information, seeking to influence voter support and election results," the report said.
China was using AI technology to gather information on Taiwanese current affairs, candidates' policies and polling data to shape influence operations and expand AI-driven information manipulation aimed at "affecting voter preferences and election outcomes," the bureau said.
It said the messages were mainly distributed on social media platforms including Facebook, Threads, YouTube and online forums.
Chinese state media have increasingly amplified Taiwanese critics of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party in an information war, including influencers and politicians linked to the opposition Kuomintang, a Reuters investigation conducted with Taipei-based research group IORG found.
Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwanese government agencies averaged 2.58 million a day in the first nine months of 2026, with detected threats surging from June and reaching 185.6 million in July and 106.4 million in August, data from the National Security Bureau showed.
"It cannot be ruled out that this was advance intelligence-gathering and harassment preparation aimed at interfering in Taiwan's year-end 'nine-in-one' elections," the report said.
(Reporting By Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
