Taiwanese news media insist on press freedom and professionalism, and would never become a tool of China’s “united front” campaign, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday, responding to media queries about the lack of Taiwanese media executives at the Cross-Strait Media People Summit in Beijing.
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧) was reportedly furious that no Taiwanese media representatives attended a scheduled meeting with him on Thursday last week.
“Beijing should take Taiwan’s determination to pursue freedom and democracy seriously. We also hope that it will not use vicious means to interfere with Taiwan’s development into a free and stable country,” Chen said.
Photo: Huang Tzu-yang, Taipei Times
“Cross-strait relations should proceed through democratic dialogue on the basis of peace and equality, which would help facilitate healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges,” he said. “Most importantly, we are seeing that Taiwanese news media insist on press freedom and professionalism, and would never become a tool to be used for the CCP’s [Chinese Communist Party] ‘united front’ campaign to influence or viciously suppress Taiwan.”
Thirty Taiwanese news media executives were invited to attend the four-day summit, which ended on Saturday, a plan by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office showed.
Wang attended the summit and had three goals: The summit should create an atmosphere conducive to discussing the Taiwanese version of China’s “one country, two systems” formula and the beginning of “democratic negotiations;” it should stick closely to discussing cross-strait relations as being “a choice between war and peace,” making it a mainstream agenda among Taiwanese; and it should offer an extremely positive outlook of the Chinese economy to encourage more Taiwanese businesspeople to invest in China.
A source familiar with the matter told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that Taiwanese media executives were wary of the meeting with Wang, due to Taiwan’s presidential election next year.
During their meeting with then-CPPCC chairman Wang Yang (汪洋) at the summit in 2019, Wang lectured them about peaceful unification and China’s “one country, two systems” formula, sparking criticism from the Taiwanese public.
Many executives had little interest in attending the summit for fear they would be labeled as tools for China’s “united front” campaign, the source said.
Although the Taiwan Affairs Office merged the Cross-Strait Media People Summit and Chinese Culture Summit, it failed again to draw mainstream media executives from Taiwan, the source said.
Eventually, it held a small marketing event for small and medium-sized media outlets, local radio stations and online media outlets from Taiwan, the source said.
Wang Huning has reportedly been ordered to maximize efforts to encourage Taiwanese of all levels to attend the Straits Forum on June 18 — from political parties, groups and local officials to temple management.
The purpose of such an aggressive campaign is to influence Taiwan’s presidential election next year, the source said.
“The CCP intends to weaken Taiwan’s sovereignty, intervene in the presidential election and steal Taiwan’s funds and technology,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said. “On the positive side, few media outlets are willing to put on a show for China. However, the government should investigate the legal responsibilities of media and political parties who join China’s ‘united front’ work to intervene in the elections in Taiwan.”
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