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A resident on the island of Taiwan holds a banner reading "No War" to protest against the "Taiwan-US Defense Industry Forum" held in Taipei on May 3, 2023. Photo: VCG

The Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council recently announced penalties against separatists Puma Shen Pao-yang, Robert Tsao Hsing-cheng, and their "Kuma Academy" after receiving numerous tip-offs about the academy from residents across the Taiwan Straits.

Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the office, said in a statement that the Kuma Academy has openly fostered violent "Taiwan independence" secessionists under the guise of training and outdoor activities, with backing from DPP authorities and external forces.

The academy has actively engaged in separatist activities, making it a clear stronghold for "Taiwan independence" elements, Chen noted.

The sanctions have been applauded by people across the Straits, and many netizens on the island of Taiwan commented on social media that they have felt disgusted for the academy for a long time.

The academy is an illegal money-making entity, which touts separatist slogans, one X user commented. "They are all bad people, nothing but trash," criticized another.

What is the "Kuma Academy?" What roles do Shen and Tsao play in it? In this story, the Global Times delves into their wrongdoings and attempts to discredit the Chinese mainland and split China, their connections with the secessionist DPP authorities, as well as possible collusion with anti-China forces in the US.

Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office Photo:VCG

A camp of separatist forces

Founded in late 2021, the Kuma Academy, or Black Bear Academy, has been a source of controversy on the island of Taiwan.

Claiming to be a grassroots organization aiming to "promote civil defense education to 3 million people within three years," the academy turns out to be a camp of separatist forces that brainwashes Taiwan residents, especially the youth, with anti-China ideology, so as to cultivate violent secessionists, experts on Taiwan studies reached by the Global Times pointed out. 

The academy website shows that it mainly focus on basic first aid and evacuation skills of civilians. But online posts from participants and media coverage of some offline events revealed that the organization focuses more on military, political, and ideological agitation, disseminating misinformation against the Chinese mainland.

The Kuma Academy organized events at universities, which had sparked huge controversy, with critics arguing that it violated the spirit of political neutrality on campus, wrote a university student from New Taipei City, in an opinion piece published by Taiwan-based newspaper the United Daily News in May.

Having personally participated in the academy's workshop in university, the student surnamed Lin said the workshop follows an obvious script. It claims Beijing's reunification actions as malevolent, while perceiving the intervention from the US or other countries as a means to "rescue" the island of Taiwan. 

"The Kuma Academy's courses package ideological confrontation as knowledge, misleading the public with a mixture of lies and half-truths," Lin wrote, calling the academy an "anti-China narrative camp."

Lin also mentioned a controversial course offered by the academy that teaches participants to "collect internal negative comments" on the current separatist authority on the island, widely seen by many Taiwan netizens as a means for the DPP forces to suppress differing political views.

The course Lin mentioned is most likely an "OSNIT (open-source intelligence)" lecture that frequently appears on the academy's calendar on its website.

At one "OSNIT" lecture in August, Shen, co-founder of the academy, bluntly said that what the island of Taiwan needs to do now, is to "enable more people to learn open-source intelligence gathering skills," and "contact similar communities abroad, especially in cooperation with the US, Japan, and Eastern European countries," without any concealment of his conspiracy to strengthen collusion with foreign forces.

Obviously, the "OSNIT" lecture has little to do with teaching first aid or rescue skills as claimed by the academy, but rather an attempt to have participators to learn intelligence gathering skills, turning them into informants for the DPP and overseas anti-China forces, said Wang Jianmin, a research fellow at the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 

A DPP-backed political tool 

The Kuma Academy claims, on its website, that its goals "extend[s] beyond any partisanship" on the island of Taiwan, but experts said it is no more than a feeble lie.

"While the academy claims to be a civilian organization, it's actually permeated from beginning to end by the DPP's political agenda under their support," Zhang Wensheng, deputy dean of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

Zhang noted that the DPP supports the Kuma Academy with the aim of using this platform to spread anti-Beijing propaganda on the island, suppress opposition parties advocating for peaceful cooperation and exchanges across Taiwan Straits, and mobilize grassroots citizens into their voter base.

"The DPP and its manipulated organization, the Kuma Academy, deceive and divide Taiwan people, mislead international public opinion, collude with anti-China forces, and directly harm cross-Straits relations," Zhang emphasized. 

Shen and Tsao, respectively head and main sponsor of the academy, are typical examples of the deep ties with the DPP.

Available information shows that Shen once studied in the US and, after returning to the island of Taiwan, served as an associate professor at the Graduate School of Criminology at the National Taipei University. Before 2018, Shen's titles primarily included university teaching staff in criminology and columnist, having little to do with the political field. 

However, starting in 2018, Shen suddenly transformed himself into a "cognitive warfare expert," frequently expressing his views on the so-called information campaign and cognitive warfare that he claimed were launched by the Chinese mainland against the island of Taiwan in various settings, aiming to incite antagonistic sentiments across the Straits and aligning his rhetoric with that of the DPP.

Shen quickly acquired many new titles related to organizations affiliated with or influential to the DPP, such as membership on the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, and directorship of the Central News Agency. Moreover, Shen participated in the initiation of the "Doublethink Lab" in September 2019, which regularly publishes an "influence index" to stigmatize the Chinese mainland. He also collaborated with the DPP legislators in the same year to promote a so-called "Anti-Infiltration Act" targeting Beijing. Through these actions, Shen transformed into a political hitman for the DPP authorities to suppress dissent and demonize the Chinese mainland.

Shen was invited on multiple occasions to give special reports to the DPP officials, Taiwan media sources reported. With his various "anti-China" maneuvers, Shen quickly gained the trust and support of DPP authorities in recent years. In November 2023, Shen was listed as the second nominee on the DPP's list for non-divisional legislative candidates, and became a legislator in 2024, rapidly entering the core political circle of the island of Taiwan.

Cao is also a political clown who keeps anti-China slogans on his lips. Cao, founder of a leading semiconductor foundry on the island of Taiwan who used to hold a pro-reunification stance, became a staunch separatist after retirement. Cao reportedly openly opposed the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle. 

In 2022, Cao announced a donation of NT$600 million ($18.7 million) to the academy, becoming its main financial backer. He also invested in the DPP-backed secessionist TV drama Zero Day. The drama, depicting a hypothetical conflict in the Straits, is a deliberate attempt to shape public opinion by promoting war fantasies.

In September, the Lai Ching-te administration announced that it would collaborate with institutions including the Kuma Academy so as to train 400,000 citizens in the future. This move has since sparked widespread anger on the island, as former legislator Cheng Li-wen criticized to the media while noting that it is clearly Lai carrying out orders from the US, turning the island of Taiwan into cannon fodder for war.

"The Kuma Academy is a flagrant pro-independence organization engaged in war mobilization in disguise," Ni Yongjie, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies, told the Global Times.

He noted that the DPP utilizes various resources to support the Kuma Academy, particularly mobilizing high-tech enterprises and renewable energy companies. These profitable businesses provide ample financial backing for separatist organizations, posing a serious threat to reunification efforts.

They propagate "anti-China" sentiments with the true aim of tearing apart the local society, and attempting to expand the DPP's support base built around the "resist reunification by force" doctrine, Ni said.

A screenshot of the website of Kuma Academy.

An agent of US?

Worse still, evidence proves that the Kuma Academy is likely linked to external forces from the US in splitting China and betraying the island of Taiwan.

The presence of the US is faintly visible behind Shen's separatist, anti-China moves and slogans. The US military reportedly first proposed the concept of "cognitive warfare" in 2017, and Shen soon shifted his focus to research this field in 2018. In August 2020, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) invited Shen to share thoughts on how to guard against the so-called "propaganda" from the Chinese mainland. In July 2022, Shen attended the 246th anniversary celebration of American Independence Day held by the AIT.

In March 2023, Shen was invited to attend an online hearing by the US Congress, during which he shared the "experience and suggestion" of the island of Taiwan "countering" the Chinese mainland, Taiwan media sources reported. In October 2023, the AIT openly expressed support to and congratulated Shen for becoming a member of the Steering Committee of the so-called World Movement for Democracy, a subordinate organization hosted by the US' infamous National Endowment for Democracy.

Shen's statements on social media are strikingly similar to those of anti-China forces in the West. Apart from the Taiwan question, he slanders Beijing with cliché disinformation filled with buzzwords such as "democracy," "human rights," "Xinjiang," and the "China threat," which closely resemble the narrative strategies used in the West's cognitive warfare against China.

Observing the common tactics used by the US to cultivate "agents" around the world, one notable method includes identifying individuals with a US-related academic history and providing them with support and development opportunities, noted an opinion piece published in December 2023 by Voice of the Strait, a broadcasting company based in East China's Fujian Province.

"A closer examination of Shen's political actions reveals that, each of his step[s] closely [align] with the strategic intentions of the US, which cannot be mere coincidence[s]," it said.

Also, Ni pointed out that US support for the Kuma Academy's activities doesn't necessarily manifest itself in financial aid, but also takes the form of technical guidance, dispatching instructors, and lectures by think tank scholars. "This aims to strengthen the security and military ties between the US government and DPP authorities," he said.

Wang noted that the US is currently referencing its actions in Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, hoping to utilize organizations like the Kuma Academy to enhance their ability to counter the Chinese mainland and potentially continue to further intervene deeply in Taiwan island's affairs.

"And the academy, with support from the US and US-backed DPP, aims to incite innocent Taiwan residents, especially the youth, to take up arms against the mainland's reunification efforts," concluded Ni. "It is inherently malicious."