Taipei: The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) urged the public on Sunday to remain vigilant against what it described as "cognitive warfare" relating to Taiwan's recent agreement with the United States to lower tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15 percent.

According to Focus Taiwan, the DPP's China Affairs Department noted in a Facebook post that it had observed rapid and widespread reactions to the trade deal circulating on social media. These included claims such as "the cost of the deal is a US$500 billion investment in the United States," "it provokes China," "the U.S. is hollowing out Taiwan," and "the government is selling out Taiwan in exchange for U.S. protection." The department stated that these claims are counterfactual and deliberately inflammatory, aimed at causing public anxiety and anger, describing them as a typical tactic of cognitive warfare.

In the face of increasingly digitalized, automated, and transnational information warfare, the DPP stressed the importance of public vigilance. They urged citizens to learn to identify cognitive warfare tactics and strengthen what they termed "cognitive immunity" to neutralize misinformation that harms Taiwanese society.

The party emphasized that the trade deal has been widely praised as beneficial to Taiwan by the Chinese National Federation of Industries, professionals in the technology and machine tool sectors, and financial experts. After months of negotiations, the United States agreed on Thursday (U.S. time) to cut tariffs on Taiwanese goods from 20 percent to 15 percent, without stacking them on existing most-favored-nation (MFN) rates. Meanwhile, Taiwanese semiconductor, electronics manufacturing services (EMS), artificial intelligence (AI), and energy companies will invest US$250 billion in the United States under their business plans.

Taiwan's government has pledged to provide up to US$250 billion in credit guarantees to financial institutions to support investments in the U.S. market by the semiconductor and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors.