Faced with China’s squeeze, Taiwan launches news platform in English, World News

Taiwan launched a new English-language news and media platform on Monday in a bid to give it a bigger voice on the world stage and help tackle the island’s Beijing squeeze. claimed by China on the world stage.

Taiwan +, backed by government funding of T $ 775 million ($ 28 million), will deliver news-focused online content, as well as features on Taiwan, from food and tourism to culture and culture. technology.

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

“It’s our own international media platform, a key part of our collective effort to show what Taiwan has to offer,” she said.
The founding of Taiwan + comes at a time when China is increasingly active in English-language media, making the views of the ruling Communist Party known to an outside audience, especially through the Chinese news channel. State television in English China Global Television Network, or CGTN.

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

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Speaker of Parliament You Si-kun said Taiwan must be able to tell its own stories and deal with misconceptions propagated by China.

“For a long time, the Chinese Communists have compressed Taiwan’s international space and created a false image of Taiwan, leading to the diplomatic challenges that Taiwan now faces,” You said.

“In recent years, however, there has been a drastic shift in the way the world views Chinese Communists. Major democracies around the world are now sounding the alarm bells on China’s rise to power,” a- he added.

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