TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Executives of three Taiwanese television stations denied accusations by an alleged Chinese defector that they had received funds from China during a meeting with Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) on Monday (Nov. 25), when the regulatory authority's investigation got underway.
Wang Liqiang (王立強), who claimed to have worked as a senior operative in Chinese intelligence services, defected to Australia several months ago but did not enter the media spotlight until recently.
Wang claimed that China conducted infiltration operations in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia in an attempt to exert its influence. His confession has sparked debates on whether he was the real deal as well as on the credibility of his account, including the allegation that China had paid the three Taiwanese TV stations to promote designated China-friendly candidates during the 2018 elections.
Executives of CTV, CTi, and EBC were invited to explain themselves to the NCC officials and reportedly rejected allegations that they had taken money from Beijing to promote its favored candidates in the news. The NCC said it is investigating the case and that it will fine news agencies that fail to follow fact-verification mechanisms as stipulated by the government.
In June, the NCC disclosed an audit report that shows that both CTV and CTi broadcast over 50 percent of their headlines about Kuomintang's then-mayoral candidate for Kaohsiung Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) during last year's election cycle, far more coverage than Han's rival, Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) of the Democratic Progressive Party, received from CTV and cit, which totaled 2.87 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.
A chart showing the percentage of news stories featuring five mayoral candidates running in the 2018 elections is shown below (NCC photo):
