Taipei

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A new research published by Taiwan's Information Environment Research Centre (IORG) has revealed that people using the short-video app Douyin, the Chinese-language version of TikTok are more likely to subscribe to views in favour of the communist Chinese government. 

In the study, 18.2 per cent of respondents identified themselves as Chinese-speaking TikTok users who spent an average of 4.4 days per week active on the app. This particular bracket of respondents was more likely, by up to 10 percentage points or more, to agree with China's political positions while being sceptic about the policies of the United States. 

The majority of Chinese-speaking TikTok users strongly harboured beliefs that the Taiwanese government's closer relations with the US were "provoking China" and likely to lead to a conflict across the Taiwan Strait.

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Additionally, the respondents believed that Taiwan's economic prosperity was closely linked to the island nation signing various trade deals with Beijing. 

According to analytics service QuestMobile, based in Beijing, TikTok's Chinese language cousin Douyin had around 750 million monthly active users as of May. Since Taiwan is the frontline of China's information war, the increased use of Douyin is being seen as a national security threat. 

Last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned that TikTok and Douyin were a threat to national security. Afterwards, TikTok was banned on government devices citing cybersecurity concerns. 

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China and Taiwan

Since the two sides split in 1949 after the civil war, they have been embroiled in a perpetual fight. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory but the island nation and its people have never accepted Beijing's control.

China under President Xi Jinping has made it clear that Beijing wants to take control of Taiwan, by force if necessary. During the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) congress last year, Xi asserted that the Taiwan matter was for the Chinese people only.

“The resolution of the Taiwan issue is a matter for the Chinese people themselves, to be decided by the Chinese people," said Xi. 

Also read | Taiwan: 10 former and current soldiers charged with spying for China

“We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort. But, we will never promise to renounce the use of force. And we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary.”

Over the last 12-15 months, Beijing has staged war games around the island, fired indiscriminate missiles and declared it a no-fly zone multiple times, in an attempt to simulate how it would look to cut Taiwan off in case of a potential conflict. 

(With inputs from agencies)