Hong Kong’s English-language daily the South China Morning Post (SCMP) plans to launch a bilingual newspaper in Taiwan in response to increasing ties between China and Taiwan, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News said the SCMP intended to hire several economic and finance experts as it prepares to launch a Taiwan edition.
After hiring local reporters for political and economic affairs, the newspaper will launch a local online version of the SCMP in six months’ time and decide later if it should also publish a print edition, the Economic Daily News quoted an unnamed source as saying.
The funding for the Taiwan version of the paper would come from Hong Kong, a transnational bank in Taiwan and some members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The SCMP decided to launch a paper in Taiwan because it expects Taiwan to play a greater role in economic and trade issues as a result of improved Taipei-Beijing ties since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office on May 20.
The Economic Daily News said the SCMP first conducted a survey on the newspaper market in Taiwan.
Since Taiwan already has three English daily newspapers and its market for English papers is saturated, the newspaper decided to focus on online operations with most content in Chinese, but some information in English.
The 106-year-old daily is the leading English newspaper in Hong Kong with some 100,000 subscribers and is known as one of the top English-language dailies in Asia.
If it launches a Taiwan version, it will become the second Hong Kong newspaper to break into the Taiwanese market. In 2003, Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英) began publishing the Apple Daily in Taiwan, while his Next Magazine began in 2001.
Although initially criticized by Taiwanese as gossipy and sensational, the Apple Daily quickly became one of the bestselling newspapers in Taiwan. Its daily circulation has reached 526,000 copies and is threatening the survival of other dailies. Next Magazine weekly is the bestselling news magazine in Taiwan.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS