cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17460850

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Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) in a video showed how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) bribes Taiwanese online influencers in its “united front” efforts to shape Taiwanese opinions.

The video was made by YouTuber “Pa Chiung (八炯)” and published online on Friday.

Chen in the video said that China’s United Front Work Department provided him with several templates and materials — such as making news statements — with some mentioning Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politician Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and asking him to write a song criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party.

He said he had produced content for China as requested, but did not receive the royalties as promised by a Beijing-based management company for his song Chinese Bosses (中國老總), which is sung in an exaggerated Taiwanese accent with lyrics implying a pleasant life for businesspeople in China.

Chen said he also founded a company in China jointly with a business partner from the Jinjiang Taiwan Compatriots Friendship Association, who worked as his manager and later poached all his employees and capital invested in the company.

He was labeled as a fraud and a “Taiwanese independence separatist,” and attacked by Chinese Internet trolls, after he released an online video condemning his former business partner for betraying him.

“I finally realized the hard way that where I was staying [China] was not a place of democracy,” Chen said, adding that there is a huge difference between democratic Taiwan and autocratic China.

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