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Taiwan To Block Tencent and Baidu Streaming Sites, Citing National Security and Propaganda Concerns (nikkei.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the better-safe-than-sorry dept.

Taiwan is blocking video streaming services of Chinese tech giants Baidu and Tencent Holdings, citing national security and propaganda concerns ahead of a presidential election next year. "Chiu Chui-Cheng, deputy minister of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, [said] that Taiwan is likely to ban Baidu's popular iQiyi platform, and block Tencent's plan to bring its streaming service to the island later this year," Nikkei Asian Review reports. From the report: "We are concerned that streaming media services that have close ties with Beijing could have cultural and political influences in Taiwan... and even affect Taiwan's elections," Chiu said. "If Tencent's streaming video service is trying to enter the Taiwanese market, it's very likely that it's a part of Beijing's propaganda campaign," he said. "What if the company inserts some content that Beijing hopes to advertise? What if it implements messages linked to the Communist Party or its army? We should treat this seriously and carefully at a national security level."

The official said that Beijing has stepped up its "cultural infiltration" into Taiwan after Chinese President Xi Jinping used a speech in January to push for an accelerated reunification process. Taiwan does not allow any Chinese Netflix-like streaming services to operate locally, but search engine giant Baidu has been operating in Taiwan through an agent, OTT Entertainment, after Taipei blocked the platform in November 2016. The company's data shows iQiyi's Taiwan site -- one of the most popular video streaming platforms on the island, has 2 million active daily users.

10 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Let's be honest... by msauve · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Taiwan" is the Republic of China (RoC). The article is more easily understood by knowing about the history, going back to the 1950's. Communist/socialist/dictatorial China (PRC) wants to own RoC/Tibet/south sea ("nine-dash line"). Fuck them, none of those are legitimately part of them.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:Let's be honest... by Brett+Buck · · Score: 3

      Precisely. The Communist Chinese are working up to a possible military takeover of the ROC, where they may (or may not) have to confront the USA to get it done.

    2. Re:Let's be honest... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The only reason Taiwan is a separate country is because the American navy's 7th fleet blocked Mao from capturing the fleeing rogue Chiang Kai Shek. Taiwan is an artifact of American imperialism much like Hong Kong was an artifact of British imperialism.

    3. Re:Let's be honest... by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      I think the Government of China has slowed down on bringing Taiwan back into the fold and are more comfortable with a natural transition, that will occur as soon as mainland China is a 'Democratic' as Taiwan, not that Taiwan has a particularly stellar record for being democratic, so the gap is not really that big and will occur sooner now, that the mainland China Government is easing back on trying to force it, it will happen, so might was well do it in such a way as to produce the best possible social and economic outcomes.

      The only question is, 'So who does Tencent and Baidu compete with in Taiwan', very unlikely to have anything to do with propaganda and much more likely that some insiders in Taiwan profit by this. Lets not forget, the mention of force related to against âoeintervention by external forces.â and had everything to do with bickering with the US government and nothing to do with Taiwan.

      Diplomatic styles need to be improved all over, everyone hears every thing now and making statements at one country without paying attention to how it is heard by other countries is really clumsy and causes a lot of harm. All diplomatic statements, are now heard by all countries and by people all over the globe and on the internet they last forever, stop saying crap, like only your target can hear it, the old rules are done and gone. A diplomatic statement to one nation, is a diplomatic statement to all nations and all the people of those nations and it does not die in the next news cycle but goes on and on and on the internet.

      Two countries really need to sharpen up their diplomatic game, the worst offenders, the USA and China. China does badly by trying to copy the USA in it's arrogant mistakes.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re:Let's be honest... by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Now Taiwan is free.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    5. Re:Let's be honest... by larryjoe · · Score: 1

      I think the Government of China has slowed down on bringing Taiwan back into the fold and are more comfortable with a natural transition, that will occur as soon as mainland China is a 'Democratic' as Taiwan

      My feeling is that the main purpose of China's saber rattling toward Taiwan is to create a boogeyman that is detested more than the Communist Party, a la 1984. Aside from the 1984 effect and feel-good patriotism, China has very little to gain with a takeover/annexation/destruction of Taiwan. In fact, its economy is likely to take a hit, resulting in greater social instability and a greater threat to the party. The party is not stupid and realizes that the vilification of Taiwan and the rallying of patriots is more useful than the actual unification. This is the same diversionary tactic that Trump uses in villifying Mexicans, as the unifying cry is more important politically than the actual security threat.

      not that Taiwan has a particularly stellar record for being democratic

      I suppose that there are various way to gauge the democratic record of a country, but Taiwan's democracy is quite good, at least in the last few decades after the end of martial law. The key metric of a working democracy is the peaceful transition of power among opposition parties, which has happened several times already in Taiwan. If there is a part of the Taiwanese political process that is non-democratic, it's perhaps the up to 1 million Taiwanese businessmen living in China that China encourages/pays/extorts to fly back to Taiwan to vote in the elections.

      The only question is, 'So who does Tencent and Baidu compete with in Taiwan', very unlikely to have anything to do with propaganda and much more likely that some insiders in Taiwan profit by this.

      Of all East Asian countries, Taiwan is perhaps the most accepting of foreign media and entertainment, with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and American media being easy to find. I doubt this has much to do with economic competition, as there are simply too many other media sources that compete with indigenous media.

    6. Re:Let's be honest... by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      Wrong. Taiwan has been part of China for longer than most countries in the world have existed.

      And the people of Taiwan do not give a shit about that. And I don't know about you, but people's will is supreme, and states that crush it do not have much of a soapbox in which to stand and criticize other nations.

      * Mind you that here in the West do not have much of a soap box in which to stand, either, and that Taiwan is facilitating loans to the Nicaraguan regime (which has been found have committed "crimes against humanity" against its population - google "Mother's Day Massacre.")

  2. No way! by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    It's totally illegitimate for other countries to regulate social media platforms because of concerns about elections!

  3. Baidu by jbmartin6 · · Score: 1

    If their streaming service is anything like the search portal it is so full of ads it is almost impossible to use. Probably ads overlaid on the screen while the show is on, based on what I have seen, not just commercial interruptions like we are used to in the US.

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
  4. Now why would the RoC ever be suspicious? by sgt_doom · · Score: 2

    https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/f...