TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s pressure on the Philippines and Taiwan extends beyond disputed waters and military tensions, with journalists and independent media increasingly facing what Reporters Without Borders (RSF) describes as efforts to influence public opinion, spread disinformation and undermine critical reporting.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, Asia-Pacific Bureau Advocacy Manager of RSF, told the Daily Tribune on 17 August that China’s methods of influencing the information environment are not confined to Taiwan and the Philippines but are being seen across regions around the world.

“China’s scope and the means that they try to use to change the right to information, even press freedom as we know it, is extended everywhere and around the world,” Bielakowska said.

“And we see this in the Pacific Islands, we see this in Africa, we see this in Latin America, we see this even in Europe, we see this in the United States, we see this here in Taiwan and the Philippines,” she added.

Her remarks come as both the Philippines and Taiwan face heightened tensions with Beijing–Manila over the West Philippine Sea and Taipei over China’s military and political pressure across the Taiwan Strait.

RSF’s 2026 World Press Freedom Index ranks Taiwan 28th out of 180 countries, while the Philippines ranks 114th. China ranks 178th, with RSF describing China as the world’s largest prison for journalists and accusing its regime of repressing journalism and the right to information.

The figures also reflect a broader global decline in press freedom: less than 1 percent of the world’s population now lives in a country where press freedom is rated “good,” down from 20 percent when the index was launched in 2002.

Pressure on media

Bielakowska pointed to RSF’s investigation into the Chinese Embassy’s attacks against the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and its contributor Regine Cabato.

RSF said the embassy began targeting PCIJ in February after the outlet published reporting on Chinese influence operations in the Philippines. The attacks included accusations that the outlet was promoting “anti-China rhetoric” and engaging in deliberate smears, while RSF said the campaign triggered online harassment.

The Committee to Protect Journalists separately condemned the embassy’s online attacks, saying the pressure was an attempt to discredit PCIJ’s reporting and warning that sustained diplomatic pressure could intimidate other Philippine newsrooms from critically covering China.

Bielakowska described the pressure as part of what she called China’s “wolf policy” and said similar tactics had become more visible again in the Philippines in recent months.

“This is something that we’ve seen that is going away in one of the China tactics, but it started reusing it again in the Philippines in the past months, potentially trying to impact the upcoming elections in the Philippines,” she said.

She said such efforts could seek to divide not only the Philippine media community but also the broader population.

“And we see this basically by dividing not only the media environment and media community, but also trying to divide the population within the Philippines to impact the outcome of elections,” Bielakowska said.