Political observer Paul Lin (林保華) has warned against cross-strait reciprocal media offices, accusing Beijing of planning the offices to carry out infiltration and espionage and to wage a war of political propaganda.
On Sunday last week, Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) called for an exchange of media offices, saying their establishment would contribute to peaceful development between the two sides and should be set up as soon as possible.
Lin said that Chinese state media outlets serve an entirely different function from the media in democratic countries, instead acting as the “voice of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Chinese journalists have to pass many levels of examination in an effort to ensure Beijing has total control of everyone in the media, he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has gone further to tighten media controls, he said.
At the Chinese Nationwide Propaganda and Ideology Work Conference in August, Xi mandated all journalism schools and universities to make students attend courses on “Marxist views” of journalism. Reporters are required to take weekly classes to ensure “political consistency” with the Chinese Communist Party line.
“China is stringent about selecting journalists with the right training and qualifications for its foreign correspondent posts. It places loyalty to the party and to the country very highly,” Lin said.
“Most Chinese overseas personnel have undergone national security and intelligence training,” he added.
Lin cited the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in which three Chinese journalists were among the victims as an example of the close working relationship between China’s journalists and its government.
“Taiwan is a democratic nation. When Chinese reporters come here, they can go almost anywhere to cover news and our government does not interfere. Visits to our military bases would not be blocked, posing a threat to national security,” he said.
Saying that there is no freedom of the press in China, Lin said: “It won’t be possible for Taiwan to have a fair and equal role in any cross-strait media exchange.”
“Instead of setting up reciprocal media offices, the ban on Taiwanese news Web sites in China should be lifted,” he said.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
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.
RSS