Beijing Bets on Proxies to Subvert Taiwanese Democracy: Analysts

The Chinese regime is exploiting the run-up to Taiwan’s local polls to plant agents and undermine the island’s democracy, analysts warn.

The concerns come ahead of Taiwan’s Nov. 28 elections for posts from mayor to village chief.

Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party said in a Nov. 8 Facebook post that Beijing’s hidden hand may be reaching deep into Taiwan’s grassroots to sway its elections and policymaking. The Democratic Progressive Party listed the Chinese regime’s four main tactics, from hospitality and cash that buy connections to spending that warps public perception.

“Beijing’s meddling has shifted from insisting its favored candidates must win to cultivating homegrown collaborators of its own choosing,” Arthur Zhin-sheng Wang, secretary-general of the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association, told The Epoch Times.

Wang said Beijing won’t pass up even the indirect sway that local contests offer.

He said building a network of proxies on the island echoes the “patriots governing Taiwan” concept—a slogan floated in October 2025 under which only Chinese Communist Party (CCP) loyalists would run Taiwan if Beijing ever took control.

“China’s calculation is that if it ever manages to ‘unify’ Taiwan, the forces it has nurtured there can step in and take charge,” he said.

“That turns these elections into a dress rehearsal for the CCP.”

Taiwan is a self-governed democracy that the Chinese regime has never controlled but has vowed to annex by force.

Yeh Yao-yuan, professor of international studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, said Beijing’s meddling also aims to divide Taiwanese society.

“The CCP wants people [in Taiwan] to lose faith in democracy,” Yeh told The Epoch Times.

“Every operation adds to its playbook, and the point is to pit Taiwanese against one another.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said at a Nov. 12 gathering in Beijing that “resolving the Taiwan question” is a historic mission for the CCP, according to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Legal Blind Spots

Wang said Taiwan has trouble proving Chinese meddling because it lacks laws such as the ones the United States has on foreign agents and overseas funding.

“China’s transnational repression is a case in point. Those who help carry it out can only be charged with lesser offenses because no statute specifically targets them,” he said.

Taiwanese comedian Huang Yi-hao, who lampoons Xi on stage, was injured in a car crash in September. Local prosecutors alleged in an Oct. 21 indictment that five men set it up at a Chinese national’s behest in a scheme aiming to disable Huang and stop him from performing.

A day later, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, a government agency that handles cross-strait affairs, acknowledged that current laws don’t address the CCP’s involvement in transnational repression and said it would propose amendments soon, according to Taiwan’s national broadcaster Radio Taiwan International.

Wang said Taiwan’s Anti-Infiltration Act—which bars anyone directed or funded by hostile foreign forces such as Beijing from making political donations, lobbying, or campaigning—is too narrow and may leave an enforcement loophole.

“Between elections, the act doesn’t cover much of the paid work people do for the CCP,” he said.

Yeh said the lack of rules to counter Beijing’s disinformation could leave some Taiwanese wrongly convinced that their democracy is “a mess of partisan infighting.”

“This kind of cognitive warfare is hard to guard against. The proposed Digital Intermediary Services Act was meant to tackle exactly this, but the bill was shelved,” he said.

“For now, the only way to limit the damage is to build media literacy and have the government and civic groups fact-check false claims.”

Taiwan’s National Communications Commission unveiled the digital intermediary draft in June 2022 to hold large online platforms accountable for illegal content but suspended it that August after critics warned that it could curb free speech.

Stealthier Tactics

Taiwanese prosecutors on Nov. 6 indicted legislator Kao Chin Su-mei on charges of taking money from the Chinese regime to build a network in Taiwan and following its orders to sway the legislature. They sought a 14-year prison term under the National Security Act and other laws.

Yeh said a single prosecution won’t stop Beijing from meddling in Taiwan.

“Beijing moves cash into Taiwan through paid go-betweens to extend its reach and wage cognitive warfare,” he said.

“It’s a trick that never gets old, because big money always finds takers.”

Wang agreed but said the regime could turn to stealthier ways of interfering in Taiwan’s elections and democracy.

Taiwan bans gambling on political races, but illegal bookmakers thrive during campaign season. Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice said such operators manipulate odds to sway public opinion and skew results.

Wang said Beijing could also enlist Chinese spouses in Taiwan, buy temple endorsements with donations, or route contributions to Taiwanese businesspeople through third-party companies abroad.

“Taiwan’s rules on disclosing foreign money may not go far enough, and that gives China an opening,” he said.

“Unless the law is thoroughly tightened, this will remain a key vulnerability for Taiwan.”