Like its fickle weather, Beijing varies in its judgment on and response to Taiwan's recent presidential election. Before the election, Chinese media acted like the pan-blue camp's cheerleaders. Yet, upon the declaration of the election result, China's Taiwan Affairs Office warned that it would not stand idly by if the violence in Taiwan got out of control.
When countries such as the US and Japan congratulated President Chen Shui-bian (
Two programs in China that routinely report on Taiwan's political development are Across the Taiwan Strait on the Chinese Cultural Television (CCTV) and Taipei on Air on Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV and both gave a lot of air time to the election.
Across the Taiwan Strait is similar in format to Taiwan's political talk shows. Heated discussion among guests is rare. They all share the same enemies -- from former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to Chen. They also hoped for a pan-blue victory -- in the belief that if that were to happen, China and Taiwan would get along better and direct links would be more likely to materialize. Experts and academics invited to the show even offered advice to the pan-blue camp as if they were its campaign chiefs in Beijing.
Phoenix TV is an important channel through which Chinese intellectuals can gain an understanding of Taiwan. Despite its location in Hong Kong, the station seldom touches upon matters in the territory; it tends to focus on the political situation in China and Taiwan.
Although its ideology shares similarities with Beijing's, it sometimes deviates and then suffers from being jammed. It is by no means an open-minded media corporation. Intellectuals like it simply because it provides ample information and the way it presents views on Taiwan is somewhat different from Beijing's official version. Many of its staff are from Taiwan, including anchor Angela Chou (
Phoenix TV has probably offered the most coverage and commentary on the election. Early on, Juan predicted the pan-blue camp would win. His reason was simple -- the pan-greens have never won an election when the pan-blues were united. He obviously overlooked Lee's influence and a rising Taiwanese awareness, which is rewriting the map of national identity.
When the ballot-counting was almost complete on March 20, a Chinese commentator, unhappy to see the pan-blue ticket lagging behind, described the election as a battle between intellectuals of the modern north and localization activists of the underdeveloped south. He contended that Chen, with support from the south, would not be able to link Taiwan with the international community.
This ridiculous and seriously biased point was, however, echoed by a Taiwanese journalist, a pan-blue supporter. Seated with commentators of the "same side," she dull-wittedly offered two more peculiar perspectives. She said that with a higher living standard, pan-blues, unlike the pan-greens, who only focus on localization, have more experience in travelling abroad and interacting with Chinese. She thus believed that they are more likely to support cross-strait talks. The other peculiar reasoning she put forward was that since all her friends were pan-blue supporters, the only explanation for Chen's re-election was vote rigging.
Other than these absurd comments, the station ingeniously downgraded the Presidential Office to "Chen Shui-bian's office" during the March 27 rally.
Among for the print media, Cankaoxiaoxi is worth monitoring, even though it mainly translates wire stories. When China was closed to the outside world, only its leadership had access to the paper. The paper thus became a window to the world for the Chinese leadership; yet, it also followed their views on international affairs. During the election, Cankaoxiaoxi appeared to be a co-effort of the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party. It simply reprinted the stories in the KMT's Central Daily News, from white-collar fugitive Chen Yu-hao's (
A majority of the Chinese media, in fact, cheered for the pan-blue camp. The official Xinhua news agency's subsidiary, Globe magazine, even published a special edition with the picture of KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
It is noteworthy that the pessimistic views about Taiwan in big newspapers like the Nanfang Daily are actually submitted under pseudonyms by people working in the Taiwanese media. Is that what the pan-blue camp calls cross-strait exchange?
China's media is likely to unleash even fiercer propaganda attacks on Chen and Taiwan. This will not surprise the Taiwanese. What bewilders and surprises them is the participation of other Taiwanese in these operations.
Hsu Tung-ming is a freelance writer based in Beijing.
Translated by Jennie Shih
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
On a quiet lane in Taipei’s central Daan District (大安), an otherwise unremarkable high-rise is marked by a police guard and a tawdry A4 printout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating an “embassy area.” Keen observers would see the emblem of the Holy See, one of Taiwan’s 12 so-called “diplomatic allies.” Unlike Taipei’s other embassies and quasi-consulates, no national flag flies there, nor is there a plaque indicating what country’s embassy this is. Visitors hoping to sign a condolence book for the late Pope Francis would instead have to visit the Italian Trade Office, adjacent to Taipei 101. The death of
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators. President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities. Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force,
RSS