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).
Three cases of Candida auris, a fungus that can cause a yeast infection known as candidiasis in humans, have been reported in Taiwan over the past few years, but they did not display drug resistance, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said yesterday. Lo made the statement at a news conference in Taipei, one day after the Washington Post reported that the potentially deadly fungus is spreading in US hospitals. The fungus was first discovered in Japan in 2009 and poses a danger to immunocompromised people, with an estimated mortality rate of 30 to 60 percent, Lo
‘DIRE’: Taiwan would not engage in ‘dollar diplomacy,’ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, after China reportedly offered Honduras up to US$3 billion to establish relations The government yesterday recalled its ambassador to Honduras after the Central American nation sent its foreign minister to China, signaling that it would sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Suspicions concerning ties with Honduras are rife after Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Tuesday last week wrote on Twitter that her country would pursue diplomatic ties with China. Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina traveled to China on Wednesday “to promote efforts for the establishment of diplomatic relations” on instructions from Castro, Reuters yesterday quoted Honduran presidential spokesman Ivis Alvarado as saying. The government “has decided to immediately recall the ambassador to Honduras
SWITCH TO BEIJING: The government severed diplomatic relations about an hour after Honduras announced the move, saying that no semi-official ties would be maintained Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Honduras and ended all cooperation with the Central American country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, about an hour and a half after the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Twitter at 8am Taiwan time that the nation would cut its ties with Taiwan. Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday sent Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina to Beijing to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations. She announced the plan on March 14 on Twitter. “To safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan is terminating diplomatic ties with Honduras with immediate effect” after communication with
MEDIA, SOCIETY FOCUS: Doublethink Lab said that Beijing is trying to coerce countries that rely on China economically to pursue policies in its favor China has stronger influence over Taiwan’s media and society than any other country, the Taipei-based Doublethink Lab think tank said yesterday, as it announced its China Index gauging Beijing’s global influence. Taiwan ranked 11th overall among 82 countries assessed, but first in terms of social and media influence, Doublethink Lab chairman Puma Shen (沈伯洋) told a news conference in Taipei. More than 200 experts and academics participated in the project, including some highly influential figures, Shen said. The index collects information from countries worldwide to gauge China’s influence and assess how Chinese policies affect them, Shen said. In terms of Chinese
RSS