Faced with Chinese “pressure,” Taiwan launches an English-language news platform

TAIPEI, Aug 30 (Reuters) – Taiwan launched a new English-language news and media platform on Monday with the aim of giving it a bigger voice on the world stage and helping fight the ” Beijing’s “compression of the island claimed by China to the world. stage.

Taiwan +, backed by $ 775 million ($ 28 million) in government funding, will broadcast online content focusing on news, as well as features about Taiwan, from food and tourism to culture and technology.

President Tsai Ing-wen, in a recorded message at the launch party at a Taipei museum, said Taiwan needed a platform to highlight to the world the island’s diversity, democratic achievements and aspiration to contribute to the international community.

“It’s our own international media platform, a key part of our collective effort to showcase what Taiwan has to offer,” he said.

The founding of Taiwan + comes at a time when China is increasingly active in the English-language media, and transmits the views of the ruling Communist Party to an outside audience, especially through the English-language news channel of the state television China Global Television Network or CGTN.

China is also tightening Taiwan’s international space, including forcing foreign companies to refer to it as part of China on their websites and routinely conducting military exercises near the island.

Parliament Speaker You Si-kun said Taiwan must be able to tell its own stories and confront China’s misconceptions.

“For a long time, the Chinese communists have been squeezing Taiwan’s international space and creating a false image of Taiwan, leading to the diplomatic challenges Taiwan faces,” he said.

“In recent years, however, there has been a dramatic change in the way the world sees Chinese communists. Major democracies around the world are sounding the alarm for China’s rise,” he added. .

Taiwan already has a handful of English-language national media outlets, the most important of which is the Taipei Times, founded in 1999 and published by the massive Liberty Times.

Ben Blanchard Reports; Edited by Nick Macfie

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