US, Taiwan Should Work Together to Counter CCP’s Malign Influence, Expert Says

‘There could be a lot of lessons learned and shared,’ said Russell Hsiao, executive director of Global Taiwan Institute.

Guards raise Taiwan's national flag on the Democracy Boulevard at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on Nov. 29, 2024. I-Hwa Cheng/AFP via Getty Images

NEW YORK—Taiwan and the United States should team up to counter the Chinese regime’s malign influence, particularly Beijing’s “united front” operations, according to an expert.

Russell Hsiao, executive director of Washington-based nonprofit Global Taiwan Institute, was one of two panelists speaking at an event hosted by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York City on March 27. The event centered around the relationship between the United States and Taiwan, and the possibility of an attack waged by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Taiwan.

In response to a question by The Epoch Times, Hsiao called the CCP’s malign influence a “collective challenge” that the two sides and other like-minded partners must address.

“The greatest sort of countermeasure to addressing the malign influence is greater transparency,” Hsiao said, adding that governments should ensure that the public has a better understanding of the issue. He also called for greater cooperation between researchers and civil society organizations and information sharing between law enforcement authorities.

Hsiao said governments could “close loopholes” within their respective legal systems, requiring greater enforcement and prosecutorial capacity.

“There could be a lot of lessons learned and shared,” Hsiao added.

The CCP considers Taiwan a part of its territory and has set the goal of seizing the island, with or without the use of military force. Taiwan, a de facto independent nation with its own democratically elected government, has relied on the United States for weapons for its self-defense, although the two are not official diplomatic allies.

The Chinese regime’s united front effort is spearheaded by its United Front Department, which runs a network of organizations to co-opt civic groups, gather intelligence, shape other countries’ political environments, and facilitate illegal technology transfer.

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center said in a 2022 report that the United Front Department plays “a leading role” in the CCP’s foreign influence efforts.

“Some of the goals of PRC [People’s Republic of China] influence operations in the United States are to expand support for PRC interests among state and local leaders and to use these relationships to pressure Washington for policies friendlier to Beijing,” the report reads.

In Taiwan, the CCP’s united front effort is extensive, the Global Taiwan Institute noted in a report published earlier this month, targeting “all political parties, local communities, youth, businesses, and civil society.”

Youth exchange through summer camps, cultural activities, and education programs are among the venues in which Beijing carries out its united front operations, according to the report.

Potential Invasion

The CCP’s potential invasion of Taiwan, including the possibility of such an event happening in 2027, was also discussed by panel members.

David Sacks, a fellow for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he didn’t believe there would be such an attack before President Donald Trump’s term ended.

“If Taiwan falls and if China absorbs it through aggression or through coercion, then you have serious existential questions raised in Japan, South Korea—potentially Australia, the Philippines as well—about the durability of their alliances with the United States, whether the U.S. commitment to their defense is credible,” Sacks said.

“In my view, the leaders in Japan especially believe that we’re on the hook for Taiwan’s defense,” Sacks added. “And if the United States doesn’t come through, then I think there will be real questions asked about whether they can rely on the United States.”

The United States has maintained a longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity,” meaning that Washington does not clearly state whether the U.S. government would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.

“I think that we are in a moment where we’re taking stock of what the U.S. role in the world is fundamentally,“ Sacks said. ”We should define our interests and pursue them, and I think that Taiwan is a big part of that conversation.”

In 2023, then-CIA Director William Burns said CCP leader Xi Jinping had instructed his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) gave a similar timeline. According to its annual threat assessment report published in February 2023, the U.S. intelligence community wrote that “Beijing is working to meet its goal of fielding a military by 2027 designed to deter U.S. intervention in a future cross-Strait crisis.”

Instead of focusing on a specific timeline for a possible Chinese attack, Hsiao said the United States, Taiwan, and allies should “be able to more collectively enhance” their capabilities “to deter Beijing from engaging in that very dangerous military activity.”