Japanese Media: Large-Scale Information Warfare in China After Takaichi’s Taiwan Statement

Yomiuri, with Japan’s LLM ‘Sakana AI’,
analyzed 400,000 Japan-critical posts on X and Weibo
“Large-scale information warfare began six days after the statement”

Following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark in November last year about possible intervention in the event of a Taiwan contingency, relations between China and Japan deteriorated. An analysis has now emerged suggesting that, after this statement, a large-scale information warfare (cognitive warfare) criticizing the Japanese government took place in China.

A photo to aid understanding of the article showing an anti-Japanese protester from China tearing a Japanese Rising Sun flag. Photo by AP Yonhap News Agency

On March 23, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, “It appears highly likely that the Chinese government began posting a large volume of content on social networking services (SNS) criticizing the Japanese position, starting six days after Prime Minister Takaichi’s statement about possible intervention in a Taiwan contingency.” According to the report, Yomiuri, in collaboration with Sakana AI—a leading Japanese large language model (LLM) developer—analyzed 400,000 posts critical of Japan on major SNS platforms, including X (formerly Twitter) and China’s Weibo.

While there have been occasional concerns that China conducts information warfare to spread favorable public opinion regarding Japan, this analysis is being recognized as the first in-depth empirical study using Japan’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Yomiuri extracted 320,000 posts critical of Japan, written in Japanese, English, and Chinese, from X between October 24 of last year (one week prior to Prime Minister Takaichi’s remark) and January 17 of this year. The remaining posts for analysis were extracted from Weibo. The results indicate that the Chinese government likely orchestrated a large-scale information warfare campaign starting six days after Prime Minister Takaichi’s statement.

An analysis has emerged that a large-scale information warfare (cognitive warfare) criticizing the Japanese government took place in China after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hinted at 'intervention in the event of a Taiwan contingency' in November last year. UPI Yonhap News

There were few posts criticizing Japan on SNS during the three days following the Prime Minister’s statement on November 7 of last year. The number briefly increased on November 10, when China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized Prime Minister Takaichi’s response, but then dropped again. However, from November 13–14, there was a sharp surge in posts; this was the day the Chinese government summoned Kenji Kanasugi, the Japanese Ambassador to China.

Regarding this pattern, Yomiuri stated, “AI analysis confirmed that the Chinese government’s evolving response to the statement was clearly reflected in the trend of critical posts about Japan on SNS. It appears that China did not react immediately, but rather observed Japan’s response through a ‘silent six days’ before deciding how to proceed.”

A similar pattern was observed in Weibo accounts affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. In response to the analysis, a Japanese government official told Yomiuri, “While internal decision-making in China is like a black box, there is no great sense of discomfort.”

Previously, in a report last month on ‘Blocking Malicious AI Use,’ OpenAI pointed out that a Chinese judicial official had, in mid-October last year, planned and documented an organized smear campaign against Prime Minister Takaichi using ChatGPT.

According to the report, this official attempted to create a negative public opinion about Prime Minister Takaichi through a so-called ‘cyber special operation’—by posting negative comments, impersonating foreigners to send critical emails about her foreigner policy to politicians, labeling her as part of the far-right, and stoking anger over U.S. tariffs on Japan.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.