China is using the capitalist system and the free market to influence the media in Taiwan, a symposium at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University was told on Thursday.
Even though China is a socialist country, it does not hesitate to use capitalism to exert its influence, Graduate Student Association of National Taiwan University president Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said, one of the organizers of the Youth Alliance Against Media Monsters.
He said that companies with strong pro-China ties had been heavily investing in Taiwanese media. The result, he said, had been a “silencing effect” on those who oppose Beijing’s policies and critics of China in Taiwan had been “marginalized.”
Lin said that Taiwanese laws had left a “gaping hole” for Beijing to exploit. He said Taiwan needs to establish legislation, anti-trust laws and “a clear mechanism” to keep Chinese influence of the media in check.
Louis Chiang , senior East Asia officer at the National Endowment for Democracy, told the symposium on “Media Freedom in Taiwan” that outside of the Internet, the media environment within China itself is a “wasteland.”
She said that many Chinese are “censored, controlled and brainwashed” and that if she were inside China herself she could be “put behind bars” simply for saying so.
Nevertheless, Chiang said, “cracks are developing” and Taiwan still serves as an inspiration for those in China seeking freedom of speech.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
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MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
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