China’s Propaganda Playbook for Targeting Rivals
China’s state propaganda machine has a toolbox for undermining leaders that includes fake opinion polls, “lawfare” and general character assassination.
TAIPEI—When Beijing wants to intimidate its rivals, it has an extensive—and often menacing—playbook to draw from.
This menu for browbeating countries that cross it has been on display in the weeks since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi riled Beijing by saying that Japan could get drawn into conflict if China tried to seize Taiwan by force. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and considers its efforts to take control of the island to be an internal matter.
What began with Chinese diplomatic censure over Takaichi’s comment on Nov. 7 quickly escalated into the well-practiced arenas of information warfare, economic pressure, legal assaults and military menace.
Here are some pages from China’s playbook, refined through years of squeezing Taiwan and redeployed against Tokyo.
Information warfare
China’s state propaganda machine has a toolbox for undermining leaders that includes AI-generated deepfakes, fake opinion polls and general character assassination.
China has hurled colorful insults at Taiwan President Lai Ching-te in its effort to tarnish his government and get the people of Taiwan to warm up to Beijing. A similar style of drawing surfaced in November, with Takaichi as the target.
China has used artificial intelligence to turbocharge its information warfare campaigns. In the weeks leading up to Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election, a series of AI-generated videos maligned the departing leader, Tsai Ing-wen. Taiwan accused the Chinese military’s “Information Support Force” of orchestrating the campaign.
More recently, as China assailed Japan, text messages and photos that Taiwan officials said came from the Chinese military spread the claim that Takaichi had been bribed by Taiwanese diplomats. One photo showed jewelry that the messages alleged the Japanese leader received. Japan’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
China’s Foreign Ministry said claims about China’s use of these tactics and other methods of putting pressure on rivals are false. “China is a victim of disinformation,” the ministry said, while reasserting Beijing’s claim to Taiwan.
Economic coercion
China, now the world’s second-largest economy, routinely uses trade bans to throw its weight around. Beijing shut down imports of Norwegian salmon after the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize—which is awarded in Norway—was given to a Chinese dissident. In 2022, it banned goods from Lithuania after the country allowed a Taiwan representative office to open in its capital.
In its most recent move against Tokyo, China is choking off exports to Japan of rare earths and rare-earth magnets. The trade pressure on Tokyo began soon after Takaichi’s November comment, when China quickly halted imports of Japanese seafood—sparking memories in Taipei of a 2021 ban on Taiwanese pineapples.
Chinese tourists—and their wallets—are also a tool for Beijing. Since China’s 2019 ban on individual travel to Taiwan, issued ahead of the 2020 presidential election, cross-strait tourism has never fully recovered.
In November, China’s Foreign Ministry warned would-be tourists not to travel to Japan, citing earthquake threats. Tourist arrivals that month fell from October—but increased by 3% from November 2024.
Shifting the focus
In June, a Taiwan court convicted a Chinese ship captain of using his Togo-flagged cargo vessel to cut an undersea internet cable—a recurring national-security issue for the island. Six months later, Chinese authorities declared that the vessel was in fact being used by Taiwanese smugglers.
Taiwan’s coast guard said Beijing was “shifting the focus and mixing right with wrong.”
Similarly, facing accusations that China is spying on an unprecedented scale, Beijing has tried to redirect the spotlight by calling out others for spying on China. As the spat with Tokyo got under way, Beijing’s Ministry of State Security announced that it had solved several cases of Japanese infiltration and espionage in recent years.
Just a month earlier, police in Xiamen, an eastern Chinese city facing the island, issued a lineup showing 18 people they said were members of Taiwan psychological warfare units. Taiwan declined to comment on its accuracy, but called it a “crude and clumsy” effort to divide Taiwanese society, belittle the government and hurt morale.
Cultural leverage
The performing arts offer a high-profile venue for Beijing to mobilize support at home and get its geopolitical message across to others. It has been using this strategy for years—such as blocking Taiwanese pop singer A-Mei from performing in China after she sang the Republic of China’s anthem at the inauguration of President Chen Shui-bian in 2000.
In November, as Chinese authorities urged the public to boycott all things Japanese, singer Maki Otsuki—known for the theme of the hit anime series “One Piece”—was halfway through a performance in Shanghai when the lights and music were cut and she was escorted off the stage. The next night, a concert by Japan’s “Empress of Pop,” Ayumi Hamasaki, was canceled with little notice. She went on with the show, performing for an empty Shanghai stadium.
Legal warfare
Across many levels of Chinese officialdom, legal claims and treaties are wielded as geopolitical weapons in what Beijing has embraced as the art of “lawfare.”
Leader Xi Jinping used last year’s World War II victory commemorations to justify China’s territorial claim to Taiwan, citing wartime statements by allied powers such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration. China has also used legal arguments to assert its territorial claims in the South China Sea and to the Japanese-held Senkaku Islands, which China and Taiwan call the Diaoyus.
The United Nations is frequently a platform for Chinese legal campaigns. Chinese diplomats there argue that China’s claim to Taiwan is supported by the 1971 U.N. resolution that handed Taipei’s seat at the world body to Beijing. China has recently railed against Japan at the U.N., including when envoy Fu Cong argued at a Nov. 18 session that, “in light of Sanae Takaichi’s atrocious behavior,” Japan wasn’t qualified to take a permanent seat on the Security Council.
China’s legal warfare has lower-level targets, too. In one wide-ranging campaign, Chinese authorities issued a wanted notice last year seeking the arrest of Taiwan ruling party lawmaker Puma Shen, after accusing him of violating a mainland anti-secession law—regardless of the limits of China’s legal jurisdiction. State media joined the campaign, circulating satellite images of Shen’s home and office.
Military flexing
China’s most menacing tactic is military exercises. These “gray-zone” activities—flexing power while stopping short of direct conflict—aim to intimidate rivals and establish territorial dominance.
When China closed out 2025 with large-scale military drills around Taiwan, the Chinese military was sending a message that Taipei would be better off avoiding a fight and peacefully submitting to Beijing’s authority.
China was also turning its intimidation playbook toward Tokyo and Washington, with a warning against foreign interference. The drills made the point that Chinese forces could try to cut off any assistance coming from U.S. bases in Okinawa, Japan.
Such exercises check other boxes in China’s pressure strategy. In 2024, China’s coast guard, its fleet circling Taiwan, posted an image suggesting its ships had taken a heart-shaped path around the island, describing the exercise as “an act of love.”
Write to Joyu Wang at joyu.wang@wsj.com and Peter Saidel at Peter.Saidel@WSJ.com
TAIPEI—When Beijing wants to intimidate its rivals, it has an extensive—and often menacing—playbook to draw from.
This menu for browbeating countries that cross it has been on display in the weeks since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi riled Beijing by saying that Japan could get drawn into conflict if China tried to seize Taiwan by force. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and considers its efforts to take control of the island to be an internal matter.
What began with Chinese diplomatic censure over Takaichi’s comment on Nov. 7 quickly escalated into the well-practiced arenas of information warfare, economic pressure, legal assaults and military menace.
Here are some pages from China’s playbook, refined through years of squeezing Taiwan and redeployed against Tokyo.
Information warfare
China’s state propaganda machine has a toolbox for undermining leaders that includes AI-generated deepfakes, fake opinion polls and general character assassination.
China has hurled colorful insults at Taiwan President Lai Ching-te in its effort to tarnish his government and get the people of Taiwan to warm up to Beijing. A similar style of drawing surfaced in November, with Takaichi as the target.
China has used artificial intelligence to turbocharge its information warfare campaigns. In the weeks leading up to Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election, a series of AI-generated videos maligned the departing leader, Tsai Ing-wen. Taiwan accused the Chinese military’s “Information Support Force” of orchestrating the campaign.
More recently, as China assailed Japan, text messages and photos that Taiwan officials said came from the Chinese military spread the claim that Takaichi had been bribed by Taiwanese diplomats. One photo showed jewelry that the messages alleged the Japanese leader received. Japan’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
China’s Foreign Ministry said claims about China’s use of these tactics and other methods of putting pressure on rivals are false. “China is a victim of disinformation,” the ministry said, while reasserting Beijing’s claim to Taiwan.
Economic coercion
China, now the world’s second-largest economy, routinely uses trade bans to throw its weight around. Beijing shut down imports of Norwegian salmon after the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize—which is awarded in Norway—was given to a Chinese dissident. In 2022, it banned goods from Lithuania after the country allowed a Taiwan representative office to open in its capital.
In its most recent move against Tokyo, China is choking off exports to Japan of rare earths and rare-earth magnets. The trade pressure on Tokyo began soon after Takaichi’s November comment, when China quickly halted imports of Japanese seafood—sparking memories in Taipei of a 2021 ban on Taiwanese pineapples.
Chinese tourists—and their wallets—are also a tool for Beijing. Since China’s 2019 ban on individual travel to Taiwan, issued ahead of the 2020 presidential election, cross-strait tourism has never fully recovered.
In November, China’s Foreign Ministry warned would-be tourists not to travel to Japan, citing earthquake threats. Tourist arrivals that month fell from October—but increased by 3% from November 2024.
Shifting the focus
In June, a Taiwan court convicted a Chinese ship captain of using his Togo-flagged cargo vessel to cut an undersea internet cable—a recurring national-security issue for the island. Six months later, Chinese authorities declared that the vessel was in fact being used by Taiwanese smugglers.
Taiwan’s coast guard said Beijing was “shifting the focus and mixing right with wrong.”
Similarly, facing accusations that China is spying on an unprecedented scale, Beijing has tried to redirect the spotlight by calling out others for spying on China. As the spat with Tokyo got under way, Beijing’s Ministry of State Security announced that it had solved several cases of Japanese infiltration and espionage in recent years.
Just a month earlier, police in Xiamen, an eastern Chinese city facing the island, issued a lineup showing 18 people they said were members of Taiwan psychological warfare units. Taiwan declined to comment on its accuracy, but called it a “crude and clumsy” effort to divide Taiwanese society, belittle the government and hurt morale.
Cultural leverage
The performing arts offer a high-profile venue for Beijing to mobilize support at home and get its geopolitical message across to others. It has been using this strategy for years—such as blocking Taiwanese pop singer A-Mei from performing in China after she sang the Republic of China’s anthem at the inauguration of President Chen Shui-bian in 2000.
In November, as Chinese authorities urged the public to boycott all things Japanese, singer Maki Otsuki—known for the theme of the hit anime series “One Piece”—was halfway through a performance in Shanghai when the lights and music were cut and she was escorted off the stage. The next night, a concert by Japan’s “Empress of Pop,” Ayumi Hamasaki, was canceled with little notice. She went on with the show, performing for an empty Shanghai stadium.
Legal warfare
Across many levels of Chinese officialdom, legal claims and treaties are wielded as geopolitical weapons in what Beijing has embraced as the art of “lawfare.”
Leader Xi Jinping used last year’s World War II victory commemorations to justify China’s territorial claim to Taiwan, citing wartime statements by allied powers such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration. China has also used legal arguments to assert its territorial claims in the South China Sea and to the Japanese-held Senkaku Islands, which China and Taiwan call the Diaoyus.
The United Nations is frequently a platform for Chinese legal campaigns. Chinese diplomats there argue that China’s claim to Taiwan is supported by the 1971 U.N. resolution that handed Taipei’s seat at the world body to Beijing. China has recently railed against Japan at the U.N., including when envoy Fu Cong argued at a Nov. 18 session that, “in light of Sanae Takaichi’s atrocious behavior,” Japan wasn’t qualified to take a permanent seat on the Security Council.
China’s legal warfare has lower-level targets, too. In one wide-ranging campaign, Chinese authorities issued a wanted notice last year seeking the arrest of Taiwan ruling party lawmaker Puma Shen, after accusing him of violating a mainland anti-secession law—regardless of the limits of China’s legal jurisdiction. State media joined the campaign, circulating satellite images of Shen’s home and office.
Military flexing
China’s most menacing tactic is military exercises. These “gray-zone” activities—flexing power while stopping short of direct conflict—aim to intimidate rivals and establish territorial dominance.
When China closed out 2025 with large-scale military drills around Taiwan, the Chinese military was sending a message that Taipei would be better off avoiding a fight and peacefully submitting to Beijing’s authority.
China was also turning its intimidation playbook toward Tokyo and Washington, with a warning against foreign interference. The drills made the point that Chinese forces could try to cut off any assistance coming from U.S. bases in Okinawa, Japan.
Such exercises check other boxes in China’s pressure strategy. In 2024, China’s coast guard, its fleet circling Taiwan, posted an image suggesting its ships had taken a heart-shaped path around the island, describing the exercise as “an act of love.”
Write to Joyu Wang at joyu.wang@wsj.com and Peter Saidel at Peter.Saidel@WSJ.com
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