TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — At least three Taiwanese media trips have been arranged in China each month in the lead-up to Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 11, 2020, sparking concerns that some news outlets on the island are helping to disseminate pro-China propaganda.

Taiwan Democracy Watch Chairman Raymond Sung (宋承恩) was quoted by LTN as saying that a proposed anti-infiltration bill should also regulate "red media."

Some 23 Taiwanese media outlets have reportedly cited articles from China's state mouthpiece www.taiwan.cn multiple times. Most of the cited material has followed Bejing's line of criticism of Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and some have promoted China's new "26 measures," which purportedly grant Taiwanese working in the country equal treatment with Chinese nationals.

In the report, LTN divulged the names of pro-China media outlets whose reporters or representatives took part in organized tours to China, which received coverage in the Chinese media. Taipei-based Great News, Changhua-based Farmer Times, and Kaohsiung's Bo News joined such tours in December, while Taichung's Finger Media and Kaohsiung-based News Taiwan are among eight Taiwanese media outlets that participated in late November.

In addition, 20 reporters from Taiwanese media agencies, including United Daily News and TVBS, were said to have attended a cross-strait press event in China in early November, where the pro-Beijing New Party's legislator-at-large candidate Chiu Yi (邱毅) spoke positively on unification and the responsibility of reporters to relay views to the other side.

Four Taiwanese media tours in China took place in July, five in August, and at least one in October, according to LTN.

Sung remarked that the intensive tours given to Taiwanese media are elaborately planned operations aimed at turning them into mouthpieces for autocrats by disseminating news stories that favor Communist China.

On Saturday (Dec. 21), an anti-red media rally jointly organized by young councilors across the political spectrum is set to take place in Taipei.