Shen Youzhong, deputy chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, attended the "2026 Military News Forum" symposium hosted by the National Defense University today and emphasized that the CCP has carried out compound coercion against Taiwan such as cognitive warfare, gray belt coercion and legal warfare. Facing Xi Jinping's re-election on the 21st, the CCP's compound coercion will intensify. The government will deepen the defense resilience of the whole society and fully resist the expansion of the CCP's authoritarianism.
Shen Youzhong pointed out that the CCP spreads "suspicious views on the United States" and "suspicious military views" on social media in an attempt to manipulate public opinion and divide Taiwanese society. In addition, short video platforms such as TikTok and Xiaohongshu are used to turn political issues into daily life and entertainment, such as shaping the beauty of life in China and contrasting Taiwan's backward development, and carry out unconscious soft cognitive penetration. These are trends toward specialization, organization, and targeted marketing.
Shen Youzhong criticized the CCP’s recent cognitive warfare. In addition to releasing false information, it may also use real events but mishandled narratives or politically motivated narratives. For example, last year we manipulated the 80-year post-war international order, United Nations Resolution 2758, and even the Liberation Day on October 25 or the birth anniversary of Sun Yat-sen on November 12. Create a narrative atmosphere that Taiwan belongs to China, and this China is the People's Republic of China, which is the "one-China principle."
In terms of legal warfare, Shen Youzhong further said, including the aforementioned misinterpretation of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 in the international community, misleading of Taiwan's legal ownership, establishment of a legal system that "contains independence with law," and the transformation of reunification from a political slogan into a legal obligation. In recent years, it has established a legal system to "anti-independence and force reunification". For example, it issued the "22 Articles on Punishing Independence" in 2024 to implement its united front intention to govern Taiwan and claim it to be the legal basis for cross-border suppression.
Shen Youzhong pointed out that in addition, the CCP claims to carry out gray belt intrusions around the Taiwan Strait in accordance with the law. By normalizing patrols and law enforcement, it continues to "unilaterally expand its actions" and gradually becomes a "new normal" from individual case tests. It uses "quantitative changes" to bring about "qualitative changes" in an attempt to achieve the effect of "ruling before rule" against Taiwan.
Shen Youzhong emphasized that the purpose of the CCP's compound coercion against Taiwan is to deny my country's sovereignty, internalize cross-Strait disputes, cut off Taiwan's international space, and force the Taiwanese people to accept its one-China narrative and unification proposition. In this regard, the government has always insisted that it will never accept the political framework and legal definitions unilaterally set by the CCP, and will not allow it to shape cross-strait relations into its internal affairs to weaken our country's sovereign status. It also calls on all Chinese people to carefully assess their own risks and be vigilant before traveling to mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao in the face of the CCP's cross-border suppression and uncertain entry and exit inspections.
Shen Youzhong said that the CCP will hold the "21st Party Congress" next year. In order to consolidate the legitimacy of Xi Jinping's continued power, the CCP will inevitably intensify its pressure on Taiwan and united front operations. Taiwan will face more complex and severe challenges. In the face of the CCP's compound coercion, which combines military intimidation, political infiltration, and cognitive operations, the government will continue to strengthen the defense resilience of the entire society, improve the legal system and response mechanisms to prevent overseas infiltration and cognitive operations, prevent the Chinese Communist Party's authoritarian forces from intervening in Taiwan's internal affairs through democratic procedures, and firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security, and free and democratic life.
