Before she stepped down as Government Information Office (GIO) minister, Vanessa Shih (史亞平) announced that the GIO would soon submit draft guidelines handling visits to Taiwan and joint TV productions by actors and backstage creative and technical personnel from China to the Cabinet for examination and approval.
Concerned that they may be replaced by Chinese workers, members of the Performing and Arts Union have expressed strong opposition to the proposal. In view of this, I would like to share my assessment of the intentions of the proposal and the advantages it may bring.
Taiwanese media workers’ concerns that Chinese actors will take away Taiwanese actors’ jobs are not well founded. It is true that once the policy is implemented and restrictions relaxed, Chinese performers would come to Taiwan more often and in greater numbers. However, the policy relaxations proposed in the GIO’s draft guidelines only apply to co-productions.
In the past, policy restrictions meant that Taiwan-China co-productions had to be made outside Taiwan, giving Taiwanese actors little chance to get a piece of the action. Under the new relaxed policy, Taiwanese investors in a co-production would be able to demand that their Chinese partners shoot all or part of the scenes in Taiwan, or that they employ a certain proportion of Taiwanese crew members.
In view of this, the proposed deregulation would give Taiwan more opportunities for shooting movies and TV co-productions, which up until now have been made mostly in China.
So Taiwanese performers would actually have more work opportunities, not less.
When film and TV production teams come to Taiwan, it would be good for Taiwan in at least three ways.
First, it would be a boost for commercial outlets near shooting locations and create work opportunities for technical service providers at those locations.
Second, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has relaxed its programming regulations, allowing Taiwan-China TV co-productions to be screened at peak viewing times. This means that Taiwanese performers would not just get more job opportunities, but also raise their profile among Chinese audiences.
Third, by their nature as entertainment culture, co-produced movies and programs could contribute to cross-strait exchanges, promoting Taiwan’s democracy and freedom and highlighting its cultural diversity.
Looking ahead, however, it will take more to improve Taiwan’s film and TV industries than just Chinese investment. It is equally important to maintain those things that make Taiwanese media special — including a high degree of freedom.
With regard to education and training, Taiwan does not have enough talented film and TV professionals to meet the needs of the industry. Unless this situation is remedied, it will hinder the development of film and TV in Taiwan.
In terms of infrastructure, Taiwan no longer has a proper film studio precinct. This means that filmmakers can only work on borrowed external locations — and the application procedure can be tortuous.
Finally, the government should be aware that the removal of restrictions in cross-strait affairs must apply both ways. The government must ensure that policy changes bring new opportunities for development to Taiwan’s film and TV industries and that the livelihoods of Taiwanese actors and other media professionals will not be undermined.
Chen Ching-ho is a professor in the College of Communication at National Chengchi University.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
What began on Feb. 28 as a military campaign against Iran quickly became the largest energy-supply disruption in modern times. Unlike the oil crises of the 1970s, which stemmed from producer-led embargoes, US President Donald Trump is the first leader in modern history to trigger a cascading global energy crisis through direct military action. In the process, Trump has also laid bare Taiwan’s strategic and economic fragilities, offering Beijing a real-time tutorial in how to exploit them. Repairing the damage to Persian Gulf oil and gas infrastructure could take years, suggesting that elevated energy prices are likely to persist. But the most
Taiwan should reject two flawed answers to the Eswatini controversy: that diplomatic allies no longer matter, or that they must be preserved at any cost. The sustainable answer is to maintain formal diplomatic relations while redesigning development relationships around transparency, local ownership and democratic accountability. President William Lai’s (賴清德) canceled trip to Eswatini has elicited two predictable reactions in Taiwan. One camp has argued that the episode proves Taiwan must double down on support for every remaining diplomatic ally, because Beijing is tightening the screws, and formal recognition is too scarce to risk. The other says the opposite: If maintaining
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), during an interview for the podcast Lanshuan Time (蘭萱時間) released on Monday, said that a US professor had said that she deserved to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize following her meeting earlier this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Cheng’s “journey of peace” has garnered attention from overseas and from within Taiwan. The latest My Formosa poll, conducted last week after the Cheng-Xi meeting, shows that Cheng’s approval rating is 31.5 percent, up 7.6 percentage points compared with the month before. The same poll showed that 44.5 percent of respondents
India’s semiconductor strategy is undergoing a quiet, but significant, recalibration. With the rollout of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0, New Delhi is signaling a shift away from ambition-driven leaps toward a more grounded, capability-led approach rooted in industrial realities and institutional learning. Rather than attempting to enter the most advanced nodes immediately, India has chosen to prioritize mature technologies in the 28-nanometer to 65-nanometer range. That would not be a retreat, but a strategic alignment with domestic capabilities, market demand and global supply chain gaps. The shift carries the imprimatur of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, indicating that the recalibration is
RSS