A coalition of student groups yesterday announced the establishment of the Youth Front for Boycotting Fake News, with experts highlighting Beijing’s increased interference in Taiwan’s public communication channels.
More than 100 university and high-school student groups, along with more than 50 experts, have pledged to support the front, which was established last week.
The front’s creation followed student-led campaigns last month on National Taiwan University’s (NTU) and National Chengchi University’s campuses to boycott TV stations allegedly broadcasting false or biased news reports in favor of certain politicians, NTU Student Association president Michelle Wu (吳奕柔) told a news conference in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
Front members said they would mail a pledge to produce verified and objective reports, as well as the Chinese-language book Critical Media Literacy (批判的媒體識讀), which is used as teaching material at Shih Hsin University, to six TV news stations to remind them of basic journalistic ethics.
The front is targeting TV stations because they are the main source of information for older people, said front spokesman Chen Ku-hsiung (陳估熊), who is also the president of the National Cheng Kung University Student Association.
Taiwan Citizen Front founder and lawyer Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said that China has been expanding its influence over Taiwanese media, despite opponents of media monopolization in 2012 blocking Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體) from buying cable service operator China Network Systems Co (中嘉網路).
Chinese-backed media monopolization efforts no longer target a single media outlet, but have become a universal phenomenon in Taiwanese media, Lai said.
The campaign against false news reports is a new student movement following the 2014 Sunflower movement, and it has rallied groups promoting transitional justice, students’ rights and high-school curricular reform, Academia Sinica Institute of Taiwan History associate research fellow Wu Rwei-ren (吳叡人) said.
Chinese authorities and their proxies in Taiwan must not underestimate the civic power of Taiwanese society, he said.
Asked to comment on the Democratic Progressive Party’s performance, he said that as the party remains the most important party in Taiwan, it is crucial that it does not fall apart after its presidential primary.
When national security is threatened, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier William Lai (賴清德) — who are vying to become the party’s presidential nominee — should put aside their egos and rethink what they should do to protect the nation, he added.
SOLVED: Domestic orders have already overtaken the total sold to China last year, while the Canadian and US representative offices posted messages of support A joint effort by groups and individuals in Taiwan and abroad to prop up sales of pineapples after China announced a ban on imports of the fruit succeeded in just four days, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday. China on Friday announced that it would suspend imports of Taiwanese pineapples starting on Monday, citing biosafety concerns. Following the announcement, the council urged the public to assist farmers by purchasing pineapples, saying it hoped to sell 20,000 tonnes of the fruit domestically and 30,000 tonnes in exports. “Domestic orders have already surpassed the total sold to China last year,” COA Minister
Taiwanese netizens and politicians yesterday mocked a Chinese plan to build a transportation network linking Beijing and Taipei, calling it “science fiction” and “daydreaming.” Their comments were in reaction to the Chinese State Council’s release last week of its “Guidelines on the National Comprehensive Transportation Network Plan,” which include several proposed transportation links, with one map showing a line running from China’s Jingjinji Metropolitan Region (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) across the Taiwan Strait to Taipei. “This is the Chinese leadership daydreaming again of [fulfilling its] fantasy of extending China’s transportation network to Taiwan. I suggest people regard it as science fiction,” Democratic Progressive
‘UNITED FRONT’: Grooming young Taiwanese to become Internet celebrities or hosts is a Chinese tactic to spread propaganda to influence young people, a source said As part of its “united front” tactics, China has been grooming young Taiwanese to become Internet celebrities or Internet program hosts, a source said on condition of anonymity. Over the past year, about 1,000 Taiwanese living in China have participated in training programs and competitions for show hosts held in several cities, including Xiamen, Wenzhou and Hangzhou, the source said on Saturday. “Beijing is taking advantage of the openness of the Internet to spread propaganda about acceptance of China, and about ‘national security,’” the source said, adding that Taiwan’s national security officials are racing to fix the problem. Chinese infiltration of
MAIN CHALLENGE: The US naval commander warned that China would seek to ‘forcibly change’ the balance of power in the region that would likely be permanent The US encourages Taiwan to invest in defense and obtain asymmetric defense capabilities, US Navy Admiral Philip Davidson said on Thursday. Davidson, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, made the remark in a videoconference on defense matters hosted by the American Enterprise Institute think tank. “China is positioned to achieve overmatch” in its military capability by 2026, he said. When Beijing is able to, it would “likely choose to forcibly change” the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region, “and I would say the change in that status quo could be permanent,” he said. “China seeks a new world order, one with Chinese characteristics,