From How “China” Frames “Taiwan”: the Taiwan Affairs Office

Irrigation works

Regarding the Reuters piece I looked at in the post below this one. From Anne-Marie Brady's How “China” Frames “Taiwan” chapter in How Taiwan Impacts China:

The CCP’s Taiwan frames are set by the central Taiwan Affairs Office (国务院台湾事务办剬室),8 an agency within the State Council which coordinates with the CCP Central Propaganda Department and other relevant agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the PLA to oversee China’s Taiwan-related propaganda activities and agencies. Taiwan-related propaganda and thought work is an important task within the vast propaganda xitong (or machinery); it is seen as being so important that all party branches, regardless of their place in the Chinese bureaucracy, have a Taiwan Affairs Office, just as they always have a Propaganda Section. The Taiwan Affairs Office guides (指导) a massive program of activities aimed at molding Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and international public opinion on the Taiwan issue, with the ultimate goal of ending the unfinished business of the Chinese Civil War under the structure of “one country, two systems” (一国两制).9 The Taiwan Affairs Office has limited powers, but its policy “guidance” is backed up by other state agencies with stronger powers, such as the State Administration of Press, Publicity, Radio, Film, and Television (SAPPRFT, 国家新闻出版广播电影电视总局) and the Ministry of Public Security. As the Chinese Mainland has expanded its relations with Taiwan in the last 15 years, so there has also been an expansion of China’s Taiwan-related propaganda channels. The PRC has made a major investment in Mainland China-based television stations, websites, newspapers, and radio stations specifically targeting Taiwanese media consumers.10 Xinhua News Service even has a dedicated Taiwan website, which notably, has a section promoting the guidelines on how to discuss Taiwan in the public sphere as outlined below.11

If you as a reporter quoted a TAO "official" without some indication of this background, there's a problem with both your ethics and your journalism.

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