Taiwan Warns of China's Deepfake Coercion in Youth Exchange Programs

A human rights advocate recently said that a Taiwan youth camp in China could use artificial intelligence （AI） deepfakes to coerce participants into becoming collaborators in China’s “united front” tactics.

China is hosting summer camps for young Taiwanese, featuring low-cost food, hotel accommodation and transportation, sources said.

The “Chinese culture study camp,” which is to be held early this month, is offering an eight-day, seven-night trip to Chengdu, Dujiangyan, Meishan and Yibin in Sichuan Province for Taiwanese university students, they said.

The registration fee is NT$5,900 for first-time participants and NT$2,900 for returning attendees, sources said, adding that those are unrealistically low prices, given the camp’s itinerary and travel costs.

The itinerary includes an opening ceremony at the Sichuan Celebrity Museum, an institution overseen by the Chinese Communist Party’s Sichuan Provincial Committee Publicity Department.

The museum promotes itself as being guided by “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping’s （習近平） Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” and says it is dedicated to promoting Chinese cultural heritage and notable figures from Sichuan.

Participants would also visit Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the Dujiangyan Irrigation System and the Jinsha Site Museum.

Human rights advocate Lee Ming-che （李明哲） said the main objective of these exchange programs is to foster a sense of identification with China among young Taiwanese.

Lee was arrested in China in 2017 on suspicion of “harming China’s national security” and returned to Taiwan in 2022 after serving a five-year prison sentence for “subversion of state power.”

Chinese organizers often collect participants’ contact information, creating channels through which they can spread fake news and propaganda directly to Taiwanese audiences, he said.

The greatest risk of taking part in such trips is that Chinese authorities could use AI-generated deepfakes to fabricate footage of them visiting inappropriate places or soliciting prostitutes, and use those to pressure participants into becoming Chinese collaborators when they return to Taiwan, Lee said.

These are not genuine civilian exchanges, but “united front” operations that could expose young Taiwanese to pressure and coercion from China, he added.

In related news, the Control Yuan in a report warned that Beijing’s “united front” efforts have reached elementary schools, with more than 1,000 Taiwanese students going to China for “exchanges.”

The report highlighted a sharp increase in Taiwanese students traveling to China — across all education levels — for exchanges between 2022 and last year.

The number of Taiwanese university and college students who participated in educational exchanges in China rose from 1,100 in 2019 to 2,196 in 2022, and surged to 5,745 last year, the report said.

While universities and colleges remain the primary target of China’s “united front” efforts, it has been increasingly targeting younger age groups over the past few years, it said.

Between 2022 and last year, participation by vocational high-school and senior-high school students increased from 676 to 1,161, junior-high school students from zero to 1,021 and elementary-school students from 38 to 1,045, the report said.

The number of teachers who accompanied students on such exchanges nearly doubled from 661 to 1,281, it added.

Although the Ministry of Education last year instructed schools to report exchange activities to China independently organized by teachers, such acts continue to occur and some go unreported, it said.

The report criticized a lack of coordination among government agencies regarding civil organizations that recruit students for trips to China.

The Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of the Interior said the education ministry is the authority responsible for penalizing civil groups that organize cross-strait student activities that contravene the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area （臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例）.

However, the education ministry said it has no precedent for issuing fines to civil organizations outside its direct jurisdiction.

The council pledged to continue working with the education ministry to improve the educational exchange registration platform, bolster oversight mechanisms, and raise awareness of risks associated with travel and cross-strait educational exchanges to China through circulars, official Web sites, social media, news conferences and student camps to safeguard teachers’ and students’ safety.