
Taiwan launched a new English-language news and media streaming platform on Monday aiming to give it a greater voice on the world stage and help to tackle Beijing`s "squeeze" of the Chinese-claimed island on the world stage.
Taiwan+, backed by T$775 million ($28 million) in government funding, will broadcast content online focusing on news, as well as features about Taiwan, from food and tourism to culture and technology.
President Tsai Ing-wen, in a recorded message to the launch party at a Taipei museum, said Taiwan needed a platform to highlight to the world the island`s diversity, democratic achievements and aspiration to contribute to the international community.
"It is our own international media platform, a key part of our collective effort to show what Taiwan has to offer," she said.
Taiwan+`s founding comes at a time when China is increasingly active in English-language media, putting across the ruling Communist Party`s views to an outside audience, especially via state television`s English language news channel China Global Television Network, or CGTN.
China is also squeezing Taiwan`s international space, including forcing foreign companies to refer to it as being part of China on their websites and routinely carrying out military drills near the island.
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Parliament speaker You Si-kun said Taiwan needs to be able to tell its own stories and confront misconceptions put about by China.
"For a long time, the Chinese Communists have been squeezing Taiwan`s international space and creating a false image of Taiwan, leading to the diplomatic challenges Taiwan now faces," You said.
"In recent years, however, there has been a dramatic change in how the world sees the Chinese Communists. Major democracies around the world are now raising the alarm over China`s rise," he added.
Taiwan already has a handful of domestic English-language media, the most prominent of which is the Taipei Times, founded in 1999 and published by the mass circulation Liberty Times.