20131223 Media should promote ‘one culture’: Beijing

Media should promote ‘one culture’: Beijing

RECIPROCAL MEDIA: The director of the Taiwan Affairs Office said unbiased news reports and promotion of the idea that the two sides are one family would help

Staff writer, with CNA

Reciprocal media offices in Taiwan and China promoting the message that the two sides are part of the same culture should be established as soon as possible, a Chinese official said yesterday in Beijing.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) told a forum organized by Beijing’s CCTV for Chinese and Taiwanese media that Beijing is more than willing to speed up their establishment, adding that he hopes Taipei would match Beijing’s efforts.

He said that reports promoting the idea, “We are a family,” who are part of the same culture, as well as unbiased news reports, would help make Beijing and Taipei’s relationship better and increase respect for each other’s differences.

Nie Chenxi (聶辰席), the deputy chief of Beijing’s General Administration of Press, Publication and Broadcasting, said China attaches great importance to the role that the media plays in shaping cross-strait ties, adding that it encourages exchanges between Chinese and Taiwanese media.

CCTV head Hu Zhanfan (胡占凡) told the forum that the establishment of reciprocal media offices is necessary due to the frequent media exchanges between the two sides, adding that regular working visits made by journalists from each nation should be part of the exchanges.

The forum brought together more than 70 cross-strait representatives, including Taiwan’s Central News Agency chairman Chen Kuo-hsiang (陳國祥).

In related news, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) is reportedly planning to visit China after the Lunar New Year holiday to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Zhang.

To prevent the Wang-Zhang meeting from being seen as political, it will not be held in Beijing, according to local media reports.

Issues regarding the establishment of representative offices in each other’s territory could top the meeting’s agenda, sources said.

Wang has previously said that the visit he plans to make to China will be based on the principles of equality and dignity.

He said the government has always paid great attention to equality and dignity when interacting with China and that it has applied such principles in all technical cross-Taiwan Strait arrangements over the past five years.