Anti-Infiltration Act: ‘China Times’ plans to sue Up Media over Anti-infiltration Act allegations

By Lin Chia-nan and Lu Yi-hsuan / Staff reporters





The Chinese-language China Times yesterday vowed to sue a local media organization that accused it of contriving with Chinese authorities against the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法).

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has a majority in the Legislative Yuan, passed a third reading of the legislation on Tuesday.

The act aims to prevent meddling by external hostile forces, and ensure national security and social stability.

A notice posted on the Web site of online media start-up Master Chain following Tuesday’s enactment of the Anti-infiltration Act announces the company’s decision to withdraw from the Taiwanese market. Screen grab from the Master Chain Web site

Pan-blue camp politicians, including People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), his party’s presidential candidate, have criticized the act as reinstating an autocratic system in Taiwan.

Chinese-language online news outlet Up Media reported on Tuesday that officials from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) instructed news organizations under Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時集團) to suspend their operations in protest against the law and the DPP.

Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) had agreed to suspend only the China Times, as its daily circulation is limited, Up Media reported.

However, during a meeting with Tsai on Tuesday, most management staff were reserved about such a move, so they decided not to suspend operations and continue to criticize the act while waiting to gauge the situation after the elections on Saturday next week, it reported.

Up Media’s “false report” has sabotaged the reputation of Tsai and the China Times, which today would file a lawsuit against the journalist who wrote the report, and Up Media’s president and chairman, the China Times said in a statement on its Web site.

The claim that the TAO and China Times personnel deliberated strategy against the act was sheer fabrication, it said.

The China Times is unwavering in its “connecting China” stance, while the Want Daily sticks to its belief that “Taiwan’s well-being is only possible with cross-strait rapport,” the China Times added.

As the papers cannot easily change their values, the China Times is considering how to present reports and commentaries without contravening the act, which is unclear, it said.

Meanwhile, online media start-up Master Chain (大師鏈), the first Taiwanese media organization to enter China, said it has decided to abandon the Taiwanese market.

Master Chain is deeply disappointed in Taiwanese authorities after DPP lawmakers pushed through the act, despite doubts about its content, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Chinese worldwide should join hands to integrate their cultural and economic power, rather than obstructing cross-strait exchanges through legislation, it said.