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Chinese drone drops propaganda leaflets on Taiwan's Kinmen
Kinmen Defense Command says fliers 'typical cognitive warfare trick'

By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News | May. 27, 2024

If you're curious about the Chinese original of "typical cognitive warfare trick", it is "diǎnxíng rènzhī cāozuò jìliǎng 典型認知操作伎倆", which might also be rendered as "typical cognitive operation tactic".

A note on the name of the islands:

Kinmen (金門) means 'golden gate'. The name was first recorded in 1387 when the Hongwu Emperor appointed Zhou Dexing to administer the island and protect it from pirate attacks. The spelling "Kinmen" is a postal romanization. This transcription system is a variation of Nanking Syllabary, a system developed by Herbert Giles in 1892. It was adopted by the Chinese Imperial Post, part of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service led by Irishman Robert Hart. It is based on pronunciation in the Southern Mandarin, or Jianghuai, dialect. This dialect is widely spoken in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, including the city of Nanjing. The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs uses "Kinmen," while the United States Board on Geographic Names gives "Kinmen Island." Jinmen is the island's name both in Tongyong Pinyin and in Hanyu Pinyin. Chin-men / Chinmen is the Wade–Giles romanization of the county and island's name.

Quemoy, pronounced /kɪˈmɔɪ/, is a name for the island in English and in other European languages. It may have originated as a Spanish or Portuguese transcription of the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation of the name, Kim-mûi. This is the most common form of the islands' name in English. For example, works that deal with the First and Second Taiwan Strait Crises (the Quemoy Incident) and the 1960 United States presidential election debates when the islands received prominent worldwide news coverage all use the word Quemoy. In addition, the former National Kinmen Institute of Technology was renamed National Quemoy University in 2010. Kinmen scholar Wei Jian-feng advocates the use of the word Quemoy to better connect the island to "international society or achieve more recognition in the world". Kimoi is a Hokkien-derived spelling also used in the postal romanization system.

(Wikipedia)

Even as a rural Ohioan, I knew well the name of these little islands, Kinmen (just off the coast of Fujian / Fukien / Hokkien province of the PRC), because the communists kept shelling them — in an almost ritual fashion — every day at specified times already in the 50s, and later many young Taiwanese soldiers I knew were stationed on these islands.

Kinmen / Quemoy was often in the news, usually in tandem with Matsu, another group of nearby, scattered islands, as "Quemoy and Matsu".  I could append an equally lengthy, detailed note about the name "Matsu", but in the interest of brevity, will refrain from doing so.

Now back to the article Chinese drone dropping propaganda leaflets on Kinmen, starting from the beginning.

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A video surfaced over the weekend showing a Chinese drone dropping a package containing propaganda fliers on one of Taiwan's outer islands, which the military deemed to be a “typical cognitive warfare trick.”

On Sunday (May 26), the Kinmen Defense Command said soldiers found a black cardboard box sealed with tape on a pier on Erdan Island in Kinmen County's Lieyu Township on Saturday morning (May 25). After opening the package, soldiers found leaflets with political slogans printed in simplified Chinese.

The Kinmen Defense Command assessed the object was dropped by a drone beyond visual range, with the intent to attract attention, stir debate, and increase social media traffic, a “typical cognitive warfare trick.” It said that important facilities and positions in the defense area are fully camouflaged.

In the event of similar actions, appropriate countermeasures will be taken, said the Kinmen Defense Command. 

On Saturday, a Chinese netizen posted a YouTube video holding the leaflets before putting them into a black cardboard box and wrapping it with a red ribbon. It then shows him driving to the coast, operating his drone over Erdan Island, and dropping the package onto the military base.

One flier read: 

"Both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China, one Chinese nation. Taiwan independence is a dead end. Lai's Taiwan independence is a dead end."

liǎng'àn tóngshǔ yīgè Zhōngguó

两岸同属一个中国

tóngshǔ yīgè Zhōnghuá mínzú

同属一个中华民族

Táidú sǐlù yītiáo

台独死路一条

Lài shì Táidú, cǐ lù bùtōng！

赖氏台独，此路不通！

The other leaflet read: 

“Using force to resist unification leads only to a dead end! Don’t sacrifice your life for Taiwan independence, do you understand?”

yǐ wǔ jù tǒng,

以武拒统，

zhǐyǒu sǐlù yītiáo!

只有死路一条！

bùyào wèi Táidú màimìng,

不要为台独卖命，

nǐmen shìfǒu míngbái?

你们是否明白？

I did not provide my own English translations because those given in Taiwan News and quoted above are adequate.

The whole thrust of this drone campaign against Taiwan is comparable to America flying a drone into rural Ontario and dropping pamphlets that exhort the Canadians, "Join with us or else!"

I won't comment further than to say that I don't think Taiwanese would find this kind of propaganda very persuasive.  For example, the first line of the second leaflet threatens, “Using force to resist unification leads only to a dead end!"  That's tantamount to saying, "We are going to force you to unify with us.  If you resist, you will end up dead!"

 

Selected readings

• "The umbrella in Hong Kong" (10/19/14) — cf. Sunflower Revolution in Taiwan during the spring of 2014
• "DON'T SPEAK THE ENEMY'S LANGUAGE!" (2/17/16)
• "Epochal Shanghai drone quote: 'Control your soul’s desire for freedom.'" (5/8/22)
• "Drones and passivity" (11/8/11) — and there are many other similar posts

[Thanks to AntC]

May 31, 2024 @ 11:09 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and politics, Language and the military

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