Leaked GoLaxy documents reveal China-linked AI influence operation targeting Taiwan

On 5 August 2025, researchers Brett Goldstein and Brett Benson published a New York Times opinion piece, with supporting material released through Vanderbilt University's Institute of National Security, drawing on nearly 400 pages of leaked internal documents from the Chinese artificial-intelligence firm GoLaxy (Zhongke Tianji). The records describe an AI-driven influence operation in which the company built data profiles on political figures and deployed networks of synthetic social-media personas, with Taiwan identified as a primary target in the period around the island's 2024 elections.

Taipei-based analysts at Doublethink Lab subsequently reviewed the leaked material in detail. Their analysis indicates GoLaxy assembled profiles on tens of thousands of individuals, including roughly 170 Taiwanese politicians, and used large language models, among them the China-developed DeepSeek, to generate and manage fake accounts that could push tailored messaging at scale. The documents present the work as moving beyond older troll-farm methods toward automated profiling and persona generation.

GoLaxy denied the reporting. The company is described in the documents and analysis as operating in close alignment with Chinese state interests, though the leaked records do not amount to a formal, independently confirmed line of state tasking.

The leaked GoLaxy documents, as analyzed by Doublethink Lab and first reported via the New York Times and Vanderbilt University's Institute of National Security, are assessed to show one of the earliest documented cases of AI-enabled influence operations directed at Taiwan, using synthetic personas and large-scale profiling rather than only manual trolling. Direct PRC state direction is assessed by researchers rather than legally proven, and GoLaxy denies the allegations. The case fits the broader gray-zone and cognitive-warfare pattern targeting Taiwan in 2025-2026, alongside later episodes such as China's CCTV airing drone footage of Taipei 101. This entry may be updated as further public evidence emerges.