For Epoch Times reporter Cheryl Ng in Hong Kong, the steady decline in media freedom in her hometown was an abstract threat until four thugs showed her its personal, sharp-cut reality one night last February.
Armed with hammers, the gang stormed into Ng's office as her newspaper was preparing to go to press.
"They were looking for something," Ng said. "They were fast."
As seven employees watched in terror, the men smashed a hard drive containing a design layout, temporarily crippling the Falun Gong-linked newspaper, she said.
"They weren't trying to wipe us out," she said at a Taipei forum held to address Hong Kong's press freedom 10 years after the former British colony returned to China. "That would've been too obvious."
The attack, media experts say, is a violent example in a litany of clampdowns and control of Hong Kong press by Beijing, or its thugs. The ensuing erosion of freedom in the former British colony, they say, contains lessons for Taiwan amid Beijing's push to bring the nation into its fold under the same system it uses to rule Hong Kong -- "one country, two systems."
"Since China wants to rule you under [that system], you could learn from our experiences," said Woo Lai Wan, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
"For the first two years after returning to China rule," Woo said, "everything was fine."
In 1999, however, then Chinese president Jiang Zemin (
Subtle changes in wording began to happen, such as references to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) quietly morphing from Taiwanese "president" to "leader," she said.
"The message from Beijing was clear -- ultimate power is theirs," Woo said.
Beijing's "muzzling" of Hong Kong media includes redirecting their scrutiny from the Chinese government to that of Hong Kong, political commentator Paul Lin (
"The media there can pan Hong Kong authorities, but not China; they can slam corruption, but not the party," Lin said. "Look at Hong Kong, look at Tibet, and then think about Taiwan."
The 2003 SARS epidemic underscored the consequences of Beijing's information lockdown for Hong Kong, where 300 people died of the virus, said Tung Li-wen (董立文), deputy director of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.
Enraged by Beijing's silence on SARS, which led to its spread beyond China, half a million protestors took to the streets of Hong Kong that year.
"The protest really scared China," Tung said.
Beijing-backed legislation in Hong Kong's parliament banning "leaking state secrets" was then shelved, while China sought subtler ways to influence media there, experts say.
While periodically detaining Hong Kong reporters in China "to scare the territory's media," China has also courted Hong Kong media barons to encourage self-censorship, said Chen Hsiao-yi (陳曉宜), director of the Taiwan Association of Journalists.
"Beijing's message to Hong Kong reporters is, `Be obedient or go behind bars,'" Chen said.
When asked for her advice for Taiwan should the pan-blue camp mull unifying with Beijing under the "two-systems" system, Woo said: "Don't back down."
"If you back down, you'll end up losing all your press freedoms," she said.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
RSS