Political observer Paul Lin (林保華) has warned against cross-strait reciprocal media offices, accusing Beijing of planning the offices to carry out infiltration and espionage and to wage a war of political propaganda.
On Sunday last week, Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) called for an exchange of media offices, saying their establishment would contribute to peaceful development between the two sides and should be set up as soon as possible.
Lin said that Chinese state media outlets serve an entirely different function from the media in democratic countries, instead acting as the “voice of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Chinese journalists have to pass many levels of examination in an effort to ensure Beijing has total control of everyone in the media, he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has gone further to tighten media controls, he said.
At the Chinese Nationwide Propaganda and Ideology Work Conference in August, Xi mandated all journalism schools and universities to make students attend courses on “Marxist views” of journalism. Reporters are required to take weekly classes to ensure “political consistency” with the Chinese Communist Party line.
“China is stringent about selecting journalists with the right training and qualifications for its foreign correspondent posts. It places loyalty to the party and to the country very highly,” Lin said.
“Most Chinese overseas personnel have undergone national security and intelligence training,” he added.
Lin cited the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in which three Chinese journalists were among the victims as an example of the close working relationship between China’s journalists and its government.
“Taiwan is a democratic nation. When Chinese reporters come here, they can go almost anywhere to cover news and our government does not interfere. Visits to our military bases would not be blocked, posing a threat to national security,” he said.
Saying that there is no freedom of the press in China, Lin said: “It won’t be possible for Taiwan to have a fair and equal role in any cross-strait media exchange.”
“Instead of setting up reciprocal media offices, the ban on Taiwanese news Web sites in China should be lifted,” he said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS