Taiwan plans to ban mainland Chinese streaming sites such as iQiyi and Tencent WeTV
- Taiwan is planning to ban mainland Chinese streaming giants iQiyi and Tencent Holdings from operating services on the island
- The order will prohibit Taiwanese individuals and organisations from working with mainland Chinese video streaming companies
The formal order, which will be announced on September 3, will prohibit Taiwanese individuals and organisations from working with mainland Chinese video streaming companies, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a notice on Tuesday. It added that this will prevent such companies from “operating illegally” in Taiwan through local agents and distributors.
iQiyi, a Netflix-like platform backed by Chinese search giant Baidu, applied in 2016 to set up a Taiwan subsidiary. Authorities rejected the application as online streaming is not on the list of permitted services open to mainland Chinese operators, the notice said.
The services violate the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, which stipulates Chinese companies can only invest in certain categories of goods and services, according to the notice.
However, platforms like iQiyi and Tencent’s WeTV have circumvented the restrictions by forming alliances with local broadcasters and distributors to promote and sell their video streaming services on the island. iQiyi – which may have as many as 6 million subscribers across Taiwan, according to a Taipei Times report in July – has a partnership with Taiwanese company OTT Entertainment to promote and sell its services on the island.
Chinese tech companies have been facing a global backlash over concerns related to national security and data privacy, with the US and India banning a variety of Chinese apps in recent weeks, including TikTok. Tensions between the Taiwanese government and mainland China have also worsened after the US ally recently signed an agreement to buy 66 of the latest model F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
