The government yesterday designated Phoenix Television a Chinese-funded company, a move that should force the network to close its office in Taiwan.
The government has imposed tighter restrictions on Chinese companies seeking to invest in Taiwan as political and military tensions between Taipei and Beijing increase.
Beijing has ramped up pressure since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) came to power in 2016, as she rejects its “one China” principle.
.Photo: screen grab from Phoenix Television
The Mainland Affairs Council said that “stock transfers and personnel changes” had turned Phoenix TV into a de facto Chinese state-controlled entity.
Authorities have demanded that the company either stop operating in Taiwan, pull its investment or “rectify” the situation, the council said in a statement.
Phoenix TV’s offices in Taipei and Hong Kong did not respond to requests for comment.
Headquartered in Hong Kong, Phoenix TV is partially state-owned, and offers Mandarin and Cantonese-language programming, including news reports that hews to Beijing’s government.
Its audience is mostly Chinese speakers in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, as well as the overseas ethnic Chinese diaspora.
Filings with the Hong Kong stock exchange show that its largest shareholder is Bauhinia Culture Holdings Ltd (紫荊文化集團), a Chinese government-owned company.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday reported that Phoenix TV was planning to close its office in Taipei next month and lay off all 25 Taiwanese employees after a six-month negotiation with regulators made no headway.
Under Taiwanese regulations, a company is considered a Chinese investment if a Chinese entity owns more than 30 percent of its shares or has “effective control” over its operations.
Online marketplace Taobao Taiwan, registered as a foreign firm through its operator — a UK venture investment company — was forced to close in 2020 after the government ruled that it was controlled by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴).
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS