Taiwan Launches News Platform For Westerners as Beijing Steps Up Propaganda Efforts

Protesters hold placards with messages that read “reject red media” and “safeguard the nation's democracy” during a rally against pro-China media in Taipei on June 23, 2019. (Hsu Tsun-hsu / AFP)

Taiwan launched the first international streaming platform on Aug. 30 to reach the English-speaking world, as Beijing continues pushing propaganda campaigns on the world stage.

“Our story deserves to be told by Taiwanese voices,” said the president of the self-ruled island, describing the launch as “an exciting new initiative.”

Government-funded TaiwanPlus will broadcast online the latest local news, international affairs, culture, and technology, targeting English speakers for the first time, according to a Monday press release distributed by Business Wire.

TaiwanPlus funding comes at a time when China is increasingly active in English-language media, putting across the ruling Communist Party’s views to the West, especially via the regime’s overseas English mouthpiece media CGTN (China Global Television Network).

Taiwan needed a platform to highlight to the world the island’s “aspirations to contribute to the international community,” Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said in a recorded message for the opening ceremony at a Taipei museum.

Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said the launch “allows the world to more easily see Taiwan.”

Taiwan has been a de facto independent country for more than seven decades, with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution. Yet the Chinese regime claims the island as its own and has been pinching Taiwan’s international presence.

Taiwan participated as an observer in the World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization’s decision-making body, from 2009 to 2016 until the country was barred in 2017 because of Beijing’s objections.

In 2018, Beijing demanded that foreign companies list Taiwan as a part of China on their website’s drop-down menus, BBC reported. Companies that failed to cooperate, from airlines to clothing brands, would be blocked from doing business with China.

China has also carried out maneuvers in waters and airspaces, and routine military drills, and jet incursions near the island.

Taiwan’s Legislative Speaker You Si-kun said during the opening: “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 now faces.

“In recent years, however, there has been a dramatic change in how the world sees the Chinese Communists. Major democracies around the world are now raising the alarm over China’s rise.”

The new streaming platform is available on its website and social media platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.

Reuters contributed to this report.