A powerful Chinese spy agency has used pictures of U.S. and allied warships in a propaganda post against support for Taiwan independence activism.
The propaganda post, titled Resolutely fight the struggle against separatism and espionage related to Taiwan, was published by China's ministry of state security via its social media platform in the country on August 13. Taiwan is a self-ruled island but Beijing views it as a breakaway province.
According to a local media report in 2021, the ministry was established in 1983 and is responsible for anti-espionage and intelligence works, as well as safeguarding political security and the security of Beijing's overseas interests. It was self-proclaimed as the "loyal defender" of the ruling Communist Party.
Three posters were attached to the post. The first one displayed a sword in the middle and a group of warships sailing in formation in the background. At the bottom of the poster were members of security forces holding riot shields printed with the Chinese words "national security" on them.
There were eight Chinese characters at the top of the poster, saying: "The rule of law's sharp sword cuts the demon and eliminates the separatism." Authorities in China rolled out new punishments in June, including capital punishment, for what it considers to be "'Taiwan independence' die-hards."
In the wake of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's inauguration in May, China has continued to pile pressure on the island as it considers the Beijing-skeptic Democratic Progressive Party, which under Lai now controls Taiwan's presidency for an unprecedented third term, as "separatists."
It is not uncommon for the Chinese spy agency to publish propaganda posts on social media. However, Joseph Wen, a Taiwanese defense analyst, said one of the warships displayed in the Chinese poster was a U.S. Navy Ticonderoga-class cruiser.
The Ticonderoga-class is capable of performing missions such as air warfare, underwater warfare, naval surface fire support, and surface warfare. They were used to deploy with aircraft carriers, but their roles in the strike groups will be replaced by destroyers as the Navy decommissions them.
A further search of the warships' image in the poster showed it was indeed not related to China's navy. The original image was taken by the U.S. Navy during Exercise Rim of the Pacific on June 18, 2000. The U.S. military-led maritime exercise was held in waters around the Hawaiian Islands.
According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, the image showed twenty-one warships, led by American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, cruising in formation off the west coast of the island of Oahu, Hawaii, during the largest maritime exercise in the Pacific region.
The Chinese ministry of state security could not be reached for comment since it has no publicly available contact information. It does have an online platform for reporting national security issues.
It was not immediately clear how the Chinese spy agency misused a U.S. naval exercise's image for its own propaganda. An image search on Google showed the exact same image appeared on websites for downloading as desktop wallpaper and on a Chinese graphic design material website.
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