[Epoch Times, August 20, 2026] (Epoch Times reporter Zhang Yuan, Taipei, Taiwan) From MRT carriages and taxi backseats to the mobile phone screens in the hands of countless elderly family members, a quiet “visual invasion” is sweeping across Taiwan. “Chinese AI short dramas” are slowly flooding Taiwanese social media platforms. Scholars believe this is not simply a low-price dumping of commercial video content, but likely a “painless infiltration” utilizing cognitive psychology, algorithms, and legal loopholes.
“Chinese AI short dramas” utilize generative AI technology to mass-produce content at low cost. According to the Chinese media outlet “The Paper,” in May of this year, AI short dramas occupied more than half of the daily TOP 100 list for the first time, and by August, this proportion had risen to about 70%. In the past month, three AI short dramas have surpassed 100 million views, while no live-action short dramas have achieved this milestone for two consecutive months.
AI short dramas are an evolution of TikTok short videos.
According to Douyin (the overseas version of Douyin), 655 new AI short dramas were launched in August last year, but this number surged to 74,000 a year later, a growth of over 100 times, accounting for 75.4% of the total new dramas that month. This translates to an average of one new AI drama being launched every 36 seconds in July. The cost of these AI short dramas is likely only one-tenth that of traditional short dramas, and they have already triggered a wave of unemployment in China’s traditional entertainment industry. Now, they are even crossing the sea to Taiwan through social media platforms. Chinese AI short dramas are like “miniature emotional drugs,” said WangPo-Chi, associate professor of the Department of Criminal Justice at Ming Chuan University, in an interview with The Epoch Times. He explained that AI short dramas are low-cost to produce, mass-produced, and “fast-paced,” capable of creating a series of emotional highs and lows in a short time, quickly grabbing the audience’s attention. He stated that while typical TV dramas often consist of 10 to 20 episodes, viewers may not be able to watch them all, whereas AI short dramas can be watched in a short amount of time. The impact on viewers’ perceptions can be even greater than that of regular TV dramas. If such works were mass-produced by mainland China and infiltrated Taiwan, it would pose a significant risk of cognitive warfare.
“Since they know they can capture the attention of Taiwanese people, they will hide something,” Wang Bo-qi mentioned. He explained that AI short dramas could incorporate so-called CCP patriotism, the idea that blood is thicker than water, or even the concept of “one family across the Taiwan Strait.” Once viewed, these would influence viewers’ perceptions and viewpoints, and prolonged viewing could lead to brainwashing—this is undeniable. Wang Po-Chi said that just like the negative impact of TikTok on people’s perceptions, which is now being reviewed by various countries, Chinese AI short dramas are an evolved version of TikTok, with plots, storylines, and viewpoints. Given their low production costs, it would be quite easy for the CCP to influence Taiwanese people using this method.
Experts: Prevent the Public’s Brain from Being Unreasonably Fed
Taiwan cannot ignore the synergistic effect between Chinese social media platforms and Chinese AI-generated short dramas. Wang Po-Chi stated that a large number of Chinese AI-generated short dramas have already appeared on Chinese social media platforms, and are now even spilling over to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, being watched by many Taiwanese. Taiwanese authorities must take precautions and establish digital safeguards; otherwise, if they grow to a certain size, they may repeat the situation of TikTok and Xiaohongshu, which, due to inadequate initial regulation, became “too big to manage” after a surge in Taiwanese users. Wang Po-Chi suggested that relevant authorities should not only study content review standards for AI-generated short dramas but also discuss countermeasures with these social media platforms, such as establishing a more comprehensive reporting and removal mechanism. They should also have a certain level of understanding of the algorithms and even study technical gatekeeping and countermeasures to prevent the public’s brain from being unreasonably fed by algorithms with specific political purposes, and to prevent users from accidentally encountering a Chinese AI-generated short drama and then being endlessly pushed to them, leaving users with no way to avoid watching.
The massive influx of Chinese AI short dramas into Taiwan represents a form of “low-price dumping” of Chinese film and television works and culture for the Taiwanese film and television industry. Professor Wang Po-Chi stated that if these AI short dramas become a trend in Taiwan, their low cost and large production volume will further compress the development space of Taiwan’s film and television cultural industry. He said that global countermeasures against Chinese dumping have become a trend, and “Taiwan is an AI powerhouse; we have the capability to counter it.” Especially since the world relies on Taiwanese-made chips and AI supply chains, Taiwan has a significant advantage in this area. Its domestic film and television entertainment industry should be able to leverage this. Taiwanese dramas were once wildly popular in China; now, it’s worth considering how to mass-produce Taiwanese AI short dramas and re-import them into China.
Professor Wang Po-Chi, in an interview with The Epoch Times, stated that the massive influx of AI short dramas from mainland China into Taiwan could potentially brainwash the public.