China expanding influence operations across Indo-Pacific: Report
Beijing, Aug 25 (IANS) Highlighting the disinformation shared on social media platforms in Japan during the House of Representatives election earlier this year, a report has flagged that China continues to expand its influence operations across the Indo-Pacific region. February’s elections in Japan witnessed a Chinese influence operation as posts shared on X circulated memes promoting narratives like “Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae is a militarist” and “Japan cannot win in a Taiwan contingency,” Osawa Jun, a Senior Fellow at Tokyo’s Nakasone Peace Institute, wrote in ‘The Diplomat’.
The Japanese text on social media platforms had traces of simplified Chinese; some of the meme images were similar to those used in Chinese government-affiliated media and the narratives aligned with Chinese government talking points. Chinese influence operations have been targeting polls across the Indo-Pacific since the 2020s, the report detailed.
Disinformation attributed to China was circulated during local elections held in Taiwan in 2018 and 2022. During the presidential election in Taiwan in 2024, disinformation targeted Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members who were distancing themselves from China.
On July 16, US President Donald Trump mentioned that Chinese influence operations targeted the 2020 presidential election. US intelligence documents also revealed that China had carried out influence operations before the 2020 elections to impact public opinion regarding the Trump administration and undermine the US’ reputation in the world.
Trump released a trove of documents during his address to the nation on July 16. He said that China conducted what is believed to be “what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history.”
“The documents cover five major areas of concern. First, they show that, over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million US voter files. That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities, which is exactly what was happening,” said Trump.
“This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare. The intelligence even shows that China assigned a data exploitation unit specifically to this new project. Compounding the travesty, the second set of documents we are releasing reveals that members of the Deep State — a very, very famous group of people, in many cases — in our intelligence agency, worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling, covering it up from both the president and the American people like nobody thought was possible,” he added.
Trump said that US spy agencies began learning about the compromise of voter registration files in 2020, when they discovered that tens of millions of voter data have been bought, stolen or hacked by China.
China has also been accused of carrying out “influence operations” on politics in Australia since the mid-2020s. Security authorities in the Philippines reported that China-supported groups carried out influence operations during the 2025 midterm and local elections, prompting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to carry out a detailed probe. Concerns have been raised that China may increase these efforts before the presidential election in 2028 to secure a win for a pro-China candidate, ‘The Diplomat’ reported.
The report added that China has also been conducting influence operations in South Pacific island countries. Disinformation circulated in the Solomon Islands that the US was meddling in the elections held in 2024, and allegations that the US wants to kill the pro-China PM have been disseminated repeatedly since 2023.
–IANS
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