In order to counter China's efforts to win recognition among overseas Chinese, the pressing item on the agenda facing the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission is to strengthen visibility of Taiwan's overseas propaganda, said the top official in charge of overseas Chinese affairs yesterday.
"In an apparent attempt to win over the hearts of overseas Chinese, China has been going all out in promoting its propaganda over-seas," said Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission Chairman Chang Fu-mei (張富美).
"Thus, it is the commission's priority to comprehensively coun-ter such efforts by Communist China," she said.
Chang made the comments yesterday during a briefing for the Legislative Yuan's Foreign Relations Committee on the commission's latest efforts.
In regards to overseas Chinese, Chang said that Beijing has been trying to divide overseas-Chinese communities by cozying up to overseas-Chinese businessmen and increasing its propaganda among these communities.
"For example," Chang said, "China has its CCTV-4 broadcasting around the globe and the Xinhua News Agency [新華社] and China News [中新社] providing free wire reports to media around the world."
Xinhua supplies wire reports to all of China and the world while that the China News just provides stories to Chinese-language news-papers overseas.
Aside from the fact that some traditional overseas-Chinese clans have yet to adjust to the transfer of power in Taiwan, a growing number of immigrants from China has led to changes within some of the oversea Chinese communities, said Chang.
"As a result, some Taiwan-friendly people are losing their leadership positions [within the clans] and the shifting of attitude between Taiwan and China among other traditional overseas-Chinese communities," said Chang.
"In some cases, China's five-star flag is being raised in some regions' traditional Chinese clans overseas," Chang said, naming the Nan Hai Fu Yin Tang (
Chang told the legislative committee that the commission is under pressure to devise a way to consolidate recognition among overseas-Chinese clans' and their alignment toward Taiwan.
To counter Beijing's propaganda, Chang said the commission is working on ways to gear up the exposure and visibility of its propaganda overseas.
"We are now trying to pick up our pace in promoting our Macroview TV [
"These media outlets are meant to provide overseas Chinese with timely and accurate news in order to rebut false reports publicized by China," she said.
Macroview TV is a TV channel broadcasting globally to the overseas-Chinese audience.
Macroview Weekly is a free weekly periodical circulated to overseas-Chinese communities and the Macroview Times is a Web-based publication.
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