The recent purchase of several Taiwanese media groups by Hong Kong-based Tom.com is raising concerns that China will soon be able to influence public opinion here.
Tom.com bought Taiwan's Business Weekly Publishing last December following its acquisition of PC Home Publication Group, Cite Publishing and Sharp Point Publishing last May.
Business Weekly Publishing produces seven magazines in Tai-wan. Its flagship publication, Business Weekly, launched in 1980s, holds a crucial position among Taiwan's weekly news magazines and is regarded as a leader of public opinion.
Competitors of Business Weekly Publishing and government officials said that they regard the deal between Tom.com and Business Weekly as an indirect result of Taiwan's WTO entry.
But they also expressed fears that the injection of Chinese capital into the nation's media will allow China to influence the media in ways Taiwan's government may disapprove of.
Kao Tien-sheng (高天生), managing editor of New Taiwan Weekly, said he was worried that Chinese investment in the media could have serious ramifications on public opinion in Taiwan.
"China has tried very hard to invest in Taiwan's media market," Kao said. "But China is expecting these investment to have more political than economic returns."
The Government Informational Office (GIO), in charge of regulating Taiwan's media, has investigated Tom.com's investment structure to make sure Chinese influence is limited.
"We have to open up our media market to foreign capital because it is our responsibility under the WTO," said Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平), director-general of the GIO.
"But under the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, we also have the right to limit Chinese investment in Taiwanese companies to 20 percent."
Lee Cher-jean (李雪津), deputy director-general of the GIO, said that the GIO was looking at how to protect certain categories of publications, such as those containing news, politics and business matters.
She also said that though Business Weekly Publishing was owned by a Hong Kong company, it is still considered as Taiwanese media because it is registered in Taiwan.
While the government worries about the potential influence of Chinese capital, New Taiwan Weekly's Kao, however, warned that Taiwanese media organizations that wooed Hong Kong or Chinese capital might suffer more in the long term.
"Those media organizations attracting Hong Kong or Chinese investment are facing pretax profit problems," Kao said.
"From the perspective of marketing, what they need to do is revise their editorial policies to attract more readers, rather than trying to attract investors. It's just like drinking poison to quench a thirst."
TVBS Weekly executive editor Wang Feng (王丰) was optimistic about the recent acquisitions. Wang said that foreign investment, including that from Hong Kong and China, would help Taiwan's media organizations expand their scope through higher sales and improved reporting quality.
"Investment from Hong Kong or China will help Taiwan's media report perspectives from the local level up to the greater-China level," Wang said.
Business Weekly's competitors say they will monitor the company's integration with Tom.com but will not change their editorial policies or marketing directions.
"We will keep publishing according to the preferences of the local audience but won't make any changes because of our competitors' capital restructuring," said Liang Yong-huang (梁永煌), executive editor of the Win-Win Weekly.
Kao was also unswayed by the changes in the industry. "Localization is the most important value to us," he said. "We will upgrade our domestic competitiveness."
Following its acquisitions in the past year, Tom.com now controls more than 40 magazines and 10,000 book titles in Taiwan. It also has plans to enter China's publishing market via Taiwan.
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