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Taiwan
ChinaPolitics

Taiwan’s ban on books, TV shows ‘the work of the thought police’, co-founder of ruling party says

  • Children’s picture book from Chinese mainland removed from shelves while pro-Beijing cable channel’s licence is not renewed
  • Taiwan’s culture minister says more restrictions are likely, targeting PLA and Communist Party publications

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A scene from Waiting for Dad to Come Home, a children’s book which has been banned in Taiwan. Photo: Handout
Lawrence Chung
A founding member of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party has slammed the banning of a children’s book and the silencing of a pro-mainland cable television channel as a return to the island’s authoritarian past.
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The picture book, Waiting for Dad to Come Home, was ordered off the shelves on December 2 by the culture ministry, which said this week it was considering censoring other books from the mainland.

Just days after the title was removed, the CTi news channel was also taken off the air when the broadcasting regulator declined to renew its licence.

CTi supporters in Taipei after the government refused to renew its licence. Photo: AP
CTi supporters in Taipei after the government refused to renew its licence. Photo: AP

Former DPP legislator – and one of the party’s founders – Lin Cheng-chieh harked back to the 1950s-1980s, when the island’s Kuomintang government jailed dissidents and banned publications which promoted the island’s independence or the Chinese Communist Party.

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“Banning a children’s book, taking CTi news channel off the air and [planning to] censor Chinese publications are the work of the thought police, which was something the KMT did in the past, and I never expected the Democratic Progressive Party government to do the same thing,” he said.

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