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.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry