Taiwan's National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen has revealed that the agency identified nearly 100 suspicious account groups that collectively shared over 9,000 divisive messages on social media following the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing earlier this month. Tsai made the disclosure on Tuesday, 26 May at a session of the legislature's Foreign Affairs and National Defence Committee in Taipei.

Nature of the Influence Operation

According to Tsai, the suspicious accounts bore hallmarks of coordinated inauthentic behaviour — they lacked normal friend connections or mutual followers and published posts at fixed intervals, closely mirroring narratives pushed by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) state media. The dominant themes, he said, were that reunification with mainland China would bring peace to Taiwan, and that Washington's security commitment to Taipei could no longer be trusted.

After detecting the posts, the NSB alerted several government agencies to issue public clarifications and formally briefed Taiwanese President William Lai on 17 May. Tsai described this as part of the bureau's broader counter-cognitive-warfare mandate.

US Policy Reaffirmation and Trump's Remarks

Tsai noted that the US Department of State subsequently clarified that Washington's policy on Taiwan — including arms sales to Taipei — remained unchanged. He said the statement helped counter social media claims that the US would abandon Taiwan in a crisis.

Trump, speaking to Fox News after concluding his State Visit to China, said he wants both sides to de-escalate. When asked whether Taiwanese people should feel more or less secure following his meeting with Xi, Trump replied: 'Neutral. This has been going on for years,' adding that US policy on Taiwan had not changed. He also said: 'I'm not looking to have somebody go independent. And, you know, we're supposed to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war. I'm not looking for that. I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down.'

Xi Jinping's Position at the Summit

During the Beijing talks, Xi Jinping described the Taiwan question as 'the most important issue in China-US relations.' A statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs quoted Xi as warning that if the issue is mishandled, 'the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy.' Xi also characterised 'Taiwan independence' and cross-strait peace as 'irreconcilable as fire and water,' and called on the US side to 'exercise extra caution' in handling the matter.

The Broader Context

China maintains that Taiwan is an integral part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve reunification. Taiwan, backed by strong domestic public support, continues to assert its sovereignty and has consistently responded to Chinese military incursions. This is not the first time Taipei has documented coordinated information operations tied to major diplomatic events — the NSB has flagged similar patterns around previous high-profile US-China interactions.

The episode underscores how geopolitical summits increasingly have a parallel battlespace: the information environment, where state-linked accounts attempt to shape public perception before official narratives can be countered.