Paid ‘News’: China Using Taiwan Media to Win Hearts and Minds on Island, Sources Say

Paid ‘News’: China Using Taiwan Media to Win Hearts and Minds on Island, Sources Say
In this photo taken on June 23, 2019, protesters hold placards with messages that read "reject red media" and "safeguard the nation's democracy" during a rally against pro-China media in front of the Presidential Office building in Taipei. Hsu Tsun-Hsu/AFP/Getty Images
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The articles on the website of the leading Taiwan newspaper were gushing about a new Chinese government program to lure Taiwanese entrepreneurs to the mainland.

China “treated Taiwanese businessmen like its own people,” one of the articles said, citing “multiple perks”. Far from being a threat to Taiwan, the program to give economic incentives to Taiwanese to start businesses in the mainland was an “unprecedented” opportunity, it said.