The state-run Central News Agency (CNA) and the Public Television Service (PTS) have come under fire for what opposition lawmakers say is their degeneration into Beijing mouthpieces after the agencies issued a joint call with Chinese media for the establishment of reciprocal media offices on either side of the Taiwan Strait.
The call was listed in a six-point proposal jointly issued by the representatives of more than 70 Chinese and Taiwanese media outlets after they attended a forum organized by China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing on Sunday last week.
Among the Taiwanese representatives attending the forum were CNA chairman Chen Kuo-hsiang (陳國祥), PTS chairman Shao Yu-ming (邵玉銘) and Want Want China Times Group (旺旺中時集團) president Tsai Shao-chung (蔡紹中).
The proposal also called for the inking of a cross-strait cultural cooperation agreement; a concerted effort between Chinese and Taiwanese media to promote the “Zhonghua culture” (中華文化); and the normalization and formalization of cross-strait media exchanges.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said CNA appears to have reduced itself to China’s mouthpiece.
“Is CNA Taiwan’s state news agency or China’s? The demands listed in the proposal do not conform with the Mainland Affairs Council’s policies, yet the news outlet still danced along with China anyway. I think the agency is confused about its role,” Chiu said.
Chiu, who is the convener of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee, said that since CNA’s overseeing authority, the Ministry of Culture, had ostensibly failed in its duty to supervise the outlet, he would demand that it deliver a report to the committee soon.
The CNA and the PTS receive about NT$300 million and NT$900 million (US$9.9 million and US$29.9 million) in government funding each year respectively. There are also plans to allocate an extra NT$130 million to the latter next year.
DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the proposal’s failure to make any mention of press freedom proved that cross-strait media exchanges would only subject local media to the negative impacts of China, rather than helping it exert a positive influence on the latter.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said it was absurd for Taiwanese media to try to pressure the government into allowing the establishment of cross-strait media offices when what they are supposed to be doing is urging China to refrain from suppressing press freedom.
DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said that as agencies that enjoy government resources, CNA and the PTS’ cross-strait stance should be in sync with government policies.
“I am fine with these representatives attending forums and seminars [in China], but issuing a proposal telling their government what to do is [out of line],” Kuan said, adding that Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) needed to state her view on the matter.
Chen Kuo-hsiang said he did not acknowledge the “joint statement” issued by the forum, since it was unilateral and had therefore not being properly discussed.
Shao said he attended the forum in his capacity as a media professional in a bid to better understand the development of the sector on the other side of the Strait.
The Mainland Affairs Council said CNA falls under the Ministry of Culture, but remains an autonomous news outlet and “since the agency’s managers informed the ministry of their plan to attend the Beijing forum in advance, the council will respect [their behavior] as long as no laws are broken.”
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Taiwan is hosting the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) for the first time, welcoming more than 400 young linguists from 43 nations to National Taiwan University (NTU). Deputy Minister of Education Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said at the opening ceremony yesterday that language passes down knowledge and culture, and influences the way humankind thinks and understands the world. Taiwan is a multicultural and multilingual nation, with Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, 16 indigenous languages and Taiwan Sign Language all used, Chu said. In addition, Taiwan promotes multilingual education, emphasizes the cultural significance of languages and supports the international mother language movement, he said. Taiwan has long participated
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
RSS