企業大亨將台灣推向中國
2012年12月1日 星期六2012/2/8 今週刊790期 撰文 / 楊卓翰
台灣富豪旺旺集團老闆蔡衍明，在過年前於台北接受《華盛頓郵報》記者安德魯．希金斯（Andrew Higgins）專訪時表示，「迫不及待看到統一」、「有選舉是好事，但經濟應該擺第一」、「六四天安門事件沒死那麼多人」等言論，引起軒然大波。
面對民間團體反旺旺中時集團，蔡衍明也親自在民運人士王丹的臉書頁面指責《華郵》記者安德魯斷章取義，甚至要求記者提供錄音帶，還他清白。
針對蔡衍明的指控，目前在大陸採訪的安德魯，簡短回應《今週刊》的提問：「我們堅持我們的報導（We stand by our story）。」這是他的專訪報導在台灣引起軒然大波後，首次公開回應台灣媒體。
蔡衍明槓上的安德魯不是普通記者，他精通法、中、俄語，一九九九年曾因《華爾街日報》一篇俄國金融風暴的報導榮獲普立茲國際報導獎。如今面對受訪對象指控他斷章取義，正在中國挖掘內幕報導的安德魯，保持低調，並未出面公開反駁，只是他的一句「我們堅持我們的報導。」已說明他的態度與立場。
Tycoon prods Taiwan closer to China
Andrew Higgins/The Washington Post - Tsai Eng Meng, who has a sprawling business empire, says he can’t wait for Taiwan’s merger with China.
By Andrew Higgins, Published: January 21, 2012
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Shortly before Taiwan’s presidential election last weekend, Tsai Eng Meng, a local billionaire who spends most of his time in China, jumped in his Gulfstream 200 corporate jet and flew home to cast his vote.
More than 200,000 other Taiwanese businessmen based in China also rushed back, contributing to a comfortable victory by an incumbent president committed to rapprochement with China.
(Andrew Higgins/The Washington Post) - Wuerkaixi, a former Tiananmen Square student leader who now lives in exile in Taiwan, said he used to regularly get asked to write columns in China Times but not anymore after Tsai Eng Meng bought it.
Tsai’s role in prodding Taiwan closer to China, however, is far bigger than just his ballot. He not only has dozens of factories churning out rice crackers on the Chinese mainland but also controls a string of media properties in Taiwan that champion ever-closer ties between this boisterous island democracy and authoritarian but increasingly prosperous China.
“Whether you like it or not, unification is going to happen sooner or later,” said Tsai, the chairman of Want Want Group, a sprawling conglomerate comprising a giant food business, media interests, hotels, hospitals and real estate.
While opinion polls show that only a tiny minority of people in Taiwan want a swift merger with China, Tsai says he can’t wait: “I really hope that I can see that.”
Many Taiwanese tycoons now look to China for most of their profits, and the island’s wealthy cheered the election victory last Saturday of President Ma Ying-jeou against a rival who favors keeping Beijing at arm’s length. “Praise the Lord for showing that he cares about Taiwan,” Cher Wang, a devout Christian and multibillionaire businesswoman, told local media.
But only Tsai, Taiwan’s third-richest person according to a Forbes magazine ranking, has poured so much money into trying to shape opinion through media that, critics say, often echo the views of Beijing. He controls three Taiwan newspapers, a television station, various magazines and a cable network. A bid for a second, bigger cable operator is now under review by Taiwan’s National Communications Commission.
When China Times, a leading Taiwan newspaper Tsai purchased in 2008, published an article that described China’s top negotiator on Taiwan as “third rate,” the editor was promptly fired. Want Daily, a tabloid Tsai launched in 2009, provides a daily digest of mostly upbeat stories about China and the benefits for Taiwan of closer cooperation.
Journalists, said the tycoon in an interview in a Taipei hotel that he also owns, are free to criticize but “need to think carefully before they write” and avoid “insults” that cause offense. The dismissed editor, he said, was a talented writer but “hurt me by offending people, not just mainlanders. On lots of things, people were offended.”
Taiwan still has a vibrant press. The biggest-selling paper is Apple Daily, which is owned by Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong-based Taiwan mogul and pro-democracy advocate who is detested by Beijing.
Freedom House, a U.S. group that monitors liberties around the world, said in a report last year that “Taiwan’s media environment is one of the freest in Asia,” while China’s is “one of the world’s most restrictive.” But it also warned that growing commercial links across the Taiwan Strait, the narrow band of water between Taiwan and China, “raised concerns that media owners and some journalists were whitewashing news about China to protect their financial interests.”
