A recent reshuffle of personnel at the Chinese-language China Times has sparked speculation of political interference after a headline story published last month was rumored to have upset the Chinese government.
The newspaper announced on Saturday that its editor-in-chief, Hsia Chen (夏珍), would take over as president of China Times Weekly magazine, while the magazine’s president, Wang Mei-yu (王美玉), is to become the new China Times editor-in-chief.
Speculation emerged that the shift was made because a report upset Beijing. A headline story published in the China Times last month quoted a Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) official as calling China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) a “C-list” politician.
Want Want China Times Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) reportedly ordered the personnel shift to appease China.
In the report published on Dec. 26, the China Times quoted an anonymous SEF official as saying that describing heavyweights from the pan-blue political camp as eager to meet Chen was like “A-listers” fighting to meet a “C-lister.”
Both Hsia and Wang declined to comment.
Instead of denying the report, however, Hsia said in an e-mail to China Times employees that it would be “very difficult to comment” on the rumors. In the e-mail, she also urged employees not to believe or spread rumors from inside or outside the newspaper.
When asked for comment, Chen Shun-shaw (陳順孝), a journalism professor at Fujen Catholic University, said that while it was difficult to prove if the personnel shift was triggered by the headline story, it was clear that China’s impact on media outlets in Taiwan is growing.
Chen said more Taiwanese media outlets were trying to avoid reporting on sensitive issues related to China, such as material involving the Falun Gong.
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