TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Phoenix Television will cease operations in Taiwan after two decades following its designation as a China-owned enterprise by Taiwanese authorities.

The television network, which is headquartered in Hong Kong and Shenzhen and offers Mandarin and Cantonese programming, was launched in 1996 and built an office in Taiwan in 2000. A change in leadership and ownership last year led to the company's expulsion from Taiwan, wrote The Liberty Times.

Chinese state-owned Bauhinia Culture Holdings became the largest shareholder of Phoenix TV in June 2021, which allowed the Chinese Communist Party to exert direct control over the firm, per The Liberty Times.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs fined the company in September and asked it to remediate the transfer of ownership, as the company had failed to observe the required 30% cap on Chinese investment in any Taiwanese business. The company has failed to address the issue and will quit the Taiwanese market in mid-May, with 25 of its employees in the country to be laid off.

A Chinese reporter working for Phoenix TV was given exclusive access to Russia’s side of its offensive against Ukraine, according to the Guardian, prompting allegations about cooperation between Moscow and Beijing to push Russia’s narrative of the war.