Academics warned of a possible “Sinicization” of Taiwanese media at a forum yesterday, saying that civil society appeared to be the last line of defense against fast-growing Chinese influence on local media.
The Chinese influence has been so intimidating that “pro-China media now have complete control of the direction of Taiwan’s national development,” said Chen Yao-hsiang (陳耀祥), an assistant professor at National Taipei University’s Department of Public Administration and Policy.
Chen was among a panel of academics who expressed concern over Taiwan’s media at a forum organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP).
The current situation of Taiwanese media is similar to that of Hong Kong and Macau’s media before their handover to China in the late 1990s, when Beijing bribed, sweet-talked and threatened media in the two regions to promote its propaganda and “brainwash” people, Chen said.
China is taking advantage of its state capitalist system and its fast-growing economy to achieve political gains using economic strategies, including its work on Taiwanese media, he said.
Lin Yu-huei (林育卉), an assistant professor at Hungkuang University, said the result of the Jan. 14 presidential election showed that the manner in which Taiwanese media had developed had had a substantial impact on domestic politics and could undermine Taiwan’s democracy.
Over the years, ownership of much of Taiwan’s media has been dominated by business tycoons who have large investments in China, Lin said, citing the examples of Want Want Group chairman and chief executive Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), Fubon Financial chairman Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and HTC Corp chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅).
Because of the ownership changes, she said, the operational plan of those companies has changed and there has been increasing Chinese influence on news in Taiwan.
The phenomenon has been part of Beijing’s strategy to control Taiwan by non-military measures and to counter Taiwan’s democratic system. This has put Taiwan in a dire situation, said Chou Chih-hung (周志宏), a assistant professor at National Taipei University of Education.
“The main profit source for these owners is not the media company, but their other investments in China. It seems to me that the only way to counter this growing Chinese influence lies with the Taiwanese audience, either by boycotting the media outlet or their products,” Chou said.
Lin Li-yun (林麗雲), director of National Taiwan University’s School of Journalism, said that civil society should play an important role in defending the integrity of Taiwan’s journalism.
However, the government should also follow the example of the British, Japanese and South Korean governments and increase funding for public TV and broadcast systems, she said.
A strong public media system will be able to balance out the current chaotic development of private media outlets, she said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater