Taiwanese news channel accidentally airs false reports of Chinese attacks, causes panic

A Taiwanese government-backed news channel called CTS had to issue an apology after it accidentally aired a fictional news alert stating that Chinese forces had launched an attack on the country.

The TV station apologised for broadcasting the report and asked people not to panic. Several news tickers about missile attacks on cities and ports were shown during the channel's Wednesday morning broadcast.

"New Taipei City was hit by communist missiles, the Taipei port has exploded, facilities and ships were damaged and destroyed," read the Chinese Television Systems (CTS) news ticker. "On the brink of war...The Chinese Communist party prepares for war...The president has issued an emergency order, "read another.

The news captions had been mocked up for forthcoming security drills with the Fire Department in New Taipei City, but got displayed mistakenly. The CTS station issued an on-air "clarification and apology" several hours later stating that the reports had been broadcast accidentally.

"Citizens, please don't be overly panicked. We hereby clarify the information and apologise," an anchor said in the network's news bulletin at 10 a.m, according to a reports in The Guardian.

"[Yesterday] CTS news channel cooperated with the New Taipei City government fire bureau to record a disaster prevention video. On the 20th, due to a wrong setting by the production staff, we mistakenly flashed the messages from yesterday about the war and disaster prevention. People do not need to panic," read a statement from the channel.

The New Taipei fire department has also said that the fake news was supposed to be shown on May 5 during the annual disaster response drills.

"The exercise includes an earthquake scene, a tsunami, a bridge collapse and an explosion," said a fire department spokesperson. "This year, our boss said we will also include the war scenario in the exercise...It is the first time in recent years."

China views self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and vows to retake it one day, by force if necessary. It has also increased military activities in the past two years to force Taiwan to accept its rule.

China has ramped up economic, military and diplomatic pressure on the island since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen who views Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan has gone on alert since Russia invaded Ukraine and believes that China could make a similar move.