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EDITORIAL: Caution on
China media exchange
When Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) and Taiwan Affairs
Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) met at the APEC summit, Zhang raised the
issue of a media bureau exchange. Last week, China Central Television held a
forum on cross-strait media prospects to discuss and formalize media exchanges.
It is clear that the Chinese government has made the establishment of these
offices a priority for talks next year.
In the past, Taiwanese media organizations sent reporters to China because they
were not permitted to set up permanent offices. The reporters were required to
come and go on a regular basis. This was inconvenient, but requests to establish
local bureaus were denied by Chinese officials. China is now willing to
establish these offices, and while the exchange would be convenient for
Taiwanese media organizations, it would also have serious implications. Taiwan
must approach this issue with caution.
The nation’s liberal democracy and China’s communist dictatorship are vastly
different political systems with different levels of press freedom. Media
establishments on either side would be as different as night and day. If Taiwan
allows Chinese media organizations to set up offices in the country, the
bureaus’ reporters would be able to contact members of the public any time and
report on any topic without scrutiny from Taiwanese officials.
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Publicity Department recently held a Marxist
news training event for 200,000 reporters. Only those who passed a final exam
were given a press license. Would this be acceptable for Taiwanese reporters?
In China, there are restrictions galore: If a report does not suit the CCP, both
the reporter and the media outlet can be targeted. The Chinese government
delayed resident visa renewals for the New York Times and Bloomberg’s reporters
due to their reports on the assets and wealth of top Chinese leaders. The New
York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote an open letter to Chinese President
Xi Jinping (習近平) and US Vice President Joe Biden defending the two media
organizations during Biden’s visit to China. In the end, Xi requested that the
visas be issued.
Exchanging media offices appears on the surface to be in the spirit of fairness
and equality, but because of vast differences in levels of press freedom, there
would be substantial differences in reporting. Consider Hong Kong’s experience
following its return to China: The Xinhua news agency was the first organization
the Chinese government established in Hong Kong. The office is not merely a
branch of China’s official news agency, but represents the Chinese government
and carries out its so-called “united front” objectives. The office rules Hong
Kong and functions as a command center. As President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九)
administration continues talks with China, it must be clear on what the
repercussions are and make its decisions only after consulting with the public.
It must not act rashly, as it did in the case of the cross-strait service trade
agreement, lest Taiwan follow in Hong Kong’s footsteps.
Ma’s public support has dropped and he is being challenged by the Democratic
Progressive Party. If Xinhua sets up an office in Taiwan, enabling it to co-opt
pan-blue camp politicians and undermine support for the Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT), Ma may one day find that his powers do not reach farther than the
four walls of his office.
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