TAIPEI: Taiwan's first indigenous submarine, Hai Kun (Narwhal), has become the latest target of China's intensifying disinformation war, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) scrambles to undermine Taiwan's growing military self-sufficiency and indigenous defence capabilities, as reported by Focus Taiwan. Following Hai Kun's initial sea trials on June 17, fake social media accounts and CCP-aligned media outlets rapidly circulated manipulated claims that the submarine showed signs of hull deformation, a false narrative that Taiwanese defence officials have firmly debunked.
Taiwan's state-owned shipbuilder CSBC Corp. clarified that the so-called "deformation" was, in fact, a sonar dome, a standard, deliberate design feature that houses sensitive passive sonar equipment.
But facts were never the CCP's objective. The speed and coordination of the smear campaign, involving disinformation posts and broadcasts by the Chinese state-run Voice of the Strait radio, expose a deeper agenda: Beijing's desperation to discredit Taiwan's defence industry as it moves toward strategic autonomy.
Unable to halt Taiwan's advances through diplomacy or threats alone, China now wages psychological warfare aimed at eroding public trust and morale within democratic Taiwan. (ANI)
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