Taiwanese military focuses on PLA cognitive warfare threat in revamped TV show

Juguang Garden’s content gets hi-tech overhaul to cover Beijing’s misinformation campaigns, defence ministry says

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Taiwan’s defence ministry says the new programme content is meant to bolster the resolve of the island’s military personnel. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 12:00pm, 14 Jan 2025

For more than two decades, Taiwan’s flagship military television programme Juguang Garden offered a mix of educational equipment demonstrations and light-hearted skits.

The programme, which means “rejuvenation”, was designed to appeal to younger service members.

In the revamped version of the programme first aired last week, those lighter elements remained but the educational content carried a dark tone, replete with warnings about the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) growing threat and increasingly aggressive cognitive warfare tactics towards the island.

One of the key missions of the updated programme, according to Taiwan’s defence ministry, is educating soldiers about how to identify and respond to cognitive warfare waged by Beijing against the self-ruled island.

“Cognitive warfare is quietly unfolding in our daily lives. When the Chinese communists attempt to confuse and mislead us with disinformation, our minds become their ‘battlefield’,” the ministry said.

It added that the programme overhaul was meant to bolster the resolve of Taiwan’s military personnel and deny the PLA any opportunity to exploit the island’s defence forces in this “unseen battle”.