TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – China’s promise of rewards for information about 18 Taiwanese military officers is a crude example of cognitive warfare, the Ministry of National Defense said Saturday.

The Public Security Bureau in the Fujian Province city of Xiamen has published a list of what it said were 18 officers involved in psychological warfare against China, UDN reported. The alleged members of the “Political Warfare Bureau Psychological Warfare Team” were “fomenting separatism,” the bureau said.

China accused the officers of setting up websites to slander Beijing and to produce games encouraging “separatism.” The bureau promised rewards for information about their alleged “criminal activities.”

The incident is the latest in a series of Chinese accusations and blacklists targeting Taiwanese officials, the defense ministry said. Beijing is using Taiwan’s freedom of information and press freedoms to divide society and affect morale, with the latest example showing that China had run out of ideas on how to apply cognitive warfare against Taiwan.