Indo-Pacific — 2026-09-02

Taiwan Deploys AI Defenses and Identifies 13,000 Suspicious Accounts Ahead of November Elections as Chinese Cyberattacks Average 2.63 Million Daily

BLUFConverging cyberattack volumes and AI-enabled influence operations very likely compel Taipei to publicly attribute election interference to Beijing before the November 28 vote, sharpening cross-strait tensions.

Taiwan's National Security Bureau told the Legislative Yuan that China is prepared to interfere in the November 28 nine-in-one local elections, citing an identified network of roughly 13,000 suspicious internet accounts and 860,000 disputed messages generated in part with AI and spread through state media, trolls and content farms 1. The bureau reported the government service network was attacked more than 173.28 million times in the first quarter of the year 1, and separately said Taiwan's critical infrastructure faced an average of 2.63 million Chinese cyberattacks daily in 2025, up 6 percent from 2024 and 113 percent from 2023 2. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party warned this month that Beijing could use AI to target voter groups, impersonate social media users and circulate fabricated recordings before election day, while Taiwan's Central Election Commission is standing up a task force and reporting platform for candidates to flag suspected deepfakes 3. Researchers Sze-Fung Lee and William Yang told Radio Free Asia that AI-assisted Chinese interference has recurred in prior elections and is likely to continue 3.

Analysis
Taipei's identification of a 13,000-account influence network and its move to platform-level deepfake reporting mark AI-enabled interference, rather than kinetic or economic pressure, as the primary threat vector for the November 28 vote. Taiwan's government will very likely publicly attribute at least one AI-generated or AI-amplified disinformation campaign to China before election day, extending a pattern from the 2024 presidential race; sustained cyberattack growth alongside the cognitive-warfare figures points to coordinated rather than opportunistic pressure timed to the election calendar. Confidence is moderate: NSB reporting is consistent and corroborated independently by Radio Free Asia's analyst interviews, but no independent technical standard exists for attributing AI-generated content, and the rising account and attack figures could instead reflect improved Taiwanese detection and disclosure rather than genuine escalation. Attribution before polls close would give the Central Election Commission and international partners grounds to fast-track takedowns and public warnings; absent it, response stays reactive and confined to post-hoc fact-checking.

3 sources

China ready to interfere in local elections: NSB - Taipei Times
China Launched 2.6M Daily Cyberattacks on Taiwan in 2025 - TechRepublic
Taiwan steps up AI defenses as China election interference fears grow - Radio Free Asia