Of all the actions the separatist Democratic Progressive Party ruling Taiwan has taken against the mainland, the cognitive warfare must be among the most foolish ones.

In June 2017 the Taiwan authorities founded the "Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command" as the "fourth branch" of its "military forces". This was further incorporated under the "ministry of national defense" in 2022, the job of which is to launch cognitive warfare via the internet, such as trying to spread hatred among different groups on social networking sites of the mainland.

That's around the time people on the mainland began seeing a large number of weird accounts spreading such misinformation that people took just one look and trashed it.

Then came Anonymous 64 in June 2023, registering accounts on social networking sites and attacking websites on the mainland. However, they did a clumsy job, managing to attack mostly zombie websites which few visitors visit. Some of the few "achievements" they could boast of were even achieved by photoshopping the images of the pages .

On Aug 2, when the website of a small internet enterprise suffered an Anonymous 64 attack, Anonymous 64 claimed they had "controlled online forums of 40 mainland colleges", but that was because the website was linked to those 40 colleges.

The reason behind these mild attacks is clear. At a time when people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait know that reunification is just a matter of time, even those launching cognitive warfare against their own motherland know they are telling lies. For them, it's not a fight they are taking up with conviction but rather a job destined to fail that they are doing half-heartedly for money.

It's hard to believe how the efforts of Anonymous 64 and 1450 – the internet army of Taiwan responsible for cognitive warfare on the internet, nicknamed 1450 because the DPP authorities' "agricultural committee" set a budget of 14.50 million NTD ($452,640) in 2019 to recruit staff for "strengthening information response" – are a total waste of manpower and money.

The cognitive warfare launched by the DPP is nothing but a last-ditch attempt by the island authorities to resist the irreversible trend of national reunification. However, by standing on the opposite side of their own motherland, they are making a joke of themselves.