The head of the company that produced the Special Report VCDs, Lu Tung-long (
The structural problems in the media, highlighted by the appearance of satirical VCDs, were not created overnight. They date back half a century, to when the Chiang Kai-shek (
In the early days of KMT rule, the newspapers run by Taiwanese, such as the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News and the Independence Evening Post, were frequently raided because they violated political taboos. The Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News was later taken over by pro-unification forces and turned into the KMT's official mouthpiece. It gradually lost its autonomy and competitive edge. After the ban on the press was finally abolished, it could not survive and closed down.
The fate of the Independence Evening Post was equally frustrating. Constant raids caused it to gradually loose its spirit. At the same time, the China Times and the United Daily News, both of which maintained a close relationship with the KMT government, used their abundant political resources to firmly establish themselves as the Taiwanese papers were drawing their last breaths. Fifty years on, we have a situation which has been described as "the media ruling the nation."
Although the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been in power for three years, the media and the cultural empire built by unificationist forces over half a century remains to this day, unshaken. It will be difficult to fight it in the short term.
In fact, many people have long been aware that although unificationists had lost their hold on the government, they were using the media to continue their rule by continuing to brainwash the general public. This is the greatest potential concern for the Taiwanese people in their efforts to build Taiwanese self-awareness.
But what's the use in blaming the unificationists for using the media to protect their identification with China and their ethnic interests? It is only natural for them to use every resource to protect their vested interests. What we really should be asking is what the proponents of localization are doing now that they control ample economic resources.
People in media circles joke that the United Daily News is a genuine "villain," as it directly attacks the localization wave and actively promotes identification with China. The China Times, on the other hand, is a hypocrite, wrapping carefully its political insinuations in more sophisticated language.
Pro-localization forces have finally realized that they must not remain silent in the face of pro-China forces and their constant media barrage, and that it's absolutely useless to try moral persuasion on such people. As a result, they have begun to take action. Not only have they set up Web sites critical of the pro-China media, but they have also produced animated and digital video files and are using the pervasiveness of the Internet to voice the people's anger.
The appearance of the Special Report VCDs is just one minor development, an interlude in the fight against the pro-unification media. If prosecutors really must investigate who lies behind these VCDs, we can give them a clear answer right now: "Every Taiwanese person lies behind these VCDs." The people can no longer tolerate the pro-unification media.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS