Everyone knows the wars of diplomacy have a public side as well as a secret side. Now that Taiwan only has public diplomacy at its disposal while totalitarian China still has both, Beijing will have an even greater advantage. It has effectively broken the strength of pro-localization forces.
But of course there is a reason for everything, and the success of the unlimited war is also a result of the DPP's six years in power. In terms of popular media policy, the transfer of power from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to the DPP in 2000 was a chance given to the DPP by the people to change the past extreme media bias toward China.
But the DPP government has wasted six years, during which its inattention to the already weak pro-localization media caused both the Independent Evening Post and the Taiwan Daily to disappear. It also relaxed restrictions on selling Taiwanese newspapers in China. Since the media outlets advocating Taiwanese sovereignty and independence were kept out, this policy has actually supported the pro-unification media.
The publication in Taiwan of the Hong Kong-owned Apple Daily is also a result of one of the DPP's "virtuous" policies, but it only takes a few days of reading to understand its basic stance.
The DPP government bears the responsibility for the state the Taiwanese media is in today. The greatest irony of all is that it unintentionally has created its own problems.
Huang Tien-lin is a former national policy adviser to the president.
Translated by Marc Langer
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