Chinese influence over Taiwan’s media has been as serious a concern, if not more serious, than political influences or concerns about a media monopoly, academics and media members said yesterday in a forum held in Taipei.
“Beijing is now able to influence Taiwan’s politics and economy through closer cross-strait integration. The only thing it has yet to control is public opinion. And that is where [Chinese influence] came in,” Association of Taiwan Journalists president Chen Hsiao-yi (陳曉宜) told a forum on media reform organized by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
China’s fingerprints are everywhere in the media business, former Public Television Service Foundation president and chief executive Sylvia Feng (馮賢賢) said, adding that the conditional approval of a NT$76 billion (US$2.52 billion) deal allowing Want Want China Times Group to acquire cable television service provider China Network Systems (CNS) was a good example.
There had been speculation that the Want Want group, whose owner, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), is not shy about the group’s pro-China position, was backed by Beijing, Feng said.
Feng said she had information from inside sources that the deal and the group’s editorial policy were both supported by China, but she did not have concrete evidence to prove it.
That has been the biggest obstacle for media watchdogs, academics, media workers and the public to level direct accusations of Beijing’s interference, because it is difficult to track China’s investments and behind-the-scene maneuvers.
“Everyone knows that freedom of speech in Taiwan is being eroded, but no one can do anything about it. It’s frustrating,” Feng said.
Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦), who served as Government Information Office director in the former DPP administration, said Beijing has been purchasing Chinese-language print and electronic media outlets worldwide and has exercised its clout to contain voices in and activities of the media, in particular in Taiwan.
New Tang Dynasty Television, which was supported by the Falung Gong, was blocked from market access to Taiwan’s cable television channels because of Beijing’s interference, Cheng said.
He added that Taiwanese TV companies’ operations and purchases in China are also “policy tools” that Beijing uses to gain influence.
While President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) eyes further opening the market to Chinese investments, Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊), director of DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming’s (柯建銘) office, said the DPP is trying to contain Beijing through appropriate legislation, such as barring Chinese investors from the telecommunications sector and media businesses.
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, who have the legislative majority, would hold the key, Ho said.
“If they succumb to party instructions and Beijing’s pressure, blocking Chinese investments from the media would be very difficult,” she said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS