Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) yesterday expressed regret over the withdrawal of several Chinese TV stations from this year’s Taipei TV Festival, allegedly due to China’s discontent with the participation of a TV station associated with the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
“The political divergence [between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait] has made the exchange of broadcast content the most profound [cross-strait] cultural exchange we can have. The TV festival is a channel through which we can climb over that political fence,” Lung said.
Lung said the Chinese TV stations had “lost the forest for the trees” by withdrawing from the festival for political reasons, adding that while she understood there might be “certain rules” that those stations had to comply with, she hoped they could join next year’s festival.
Photo: CNA
Now in its 10th year, the festival — which opened yesterday and runs through tomorrow — has attracted 95 broadcasting and production companies from more than 14 countries, including the UK, the US, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Turkey, Greece, Vietnam and the Netherlands, to showcase their programs.
In previous years, about one-third of the exhibitors came from China, including some affiliated with the Chinese government. However, a Chinese delegation comprising of just over 100 representatives is attending this year.
According to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), the Chinese stations’ withdrawal was in response to an order from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office and State Administration of Radio Film and Television to avoid direct contact with representatives of New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV).
NTDTV was founded in the US in 2001 by several Chinese expatriates and Falun Gong practitioners with the aim of providing uncensored information to Chinese citizens and others and facilitating press freedom in China.
NTDTV had participated in the festival for the past few years, the source said, adding that the Chinese probably decided to boycott this year’s festival because of the change of venue.
“The festival had traditionally been held in the Grand Hotel, where participants were allowed to set up their exhibition stands in their respective rooms. However, this year the event has been moved to the Taipei World Trade Center Hall 3, an open-style exhibition hall,” the source said.
Lin Tung-cheng (林銅城), chief executive officer of festival organizer Hochan Entertainment Co confirmed the reports yesterday, but added that the boycott was motivated solely by NTDTV’s participation, not the change of venue.
NTDTV spokesperson Chu Wan-chi (朱婉琪) said the station was established to inform ethnic Chinese of the truth about China and that it neither encouraged nor opposed Chinese media joining the festival.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS