Central News Agency (Taiwan)
中央通訊社 | |
Headquarters in Taipei | |
| Abbreviation | CNA |
|---|---|
| Established | April 1, 1924[1] |
| Founder | Kuomintang |
| Founded at | Guangzhou, Guangdong[1] |
| Type | National news agency[2] |
| Legal status | Non-profit organisation[1] |
| Location | |
Region served | Worldwide, 30 locations[1] |
| Products | News |
| Services | Journalism |
Official languages | Standard Chinese, English, Japanese,[1] Indonesian, Spanish (closed 2021[3]) |
| Owner | Government of the Republic of China |
Parent organization | Executive Yuan |
| Employees | 300 |
| Website | cna.com.tw focustaiwan.tw |
| Central News Agency | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 中央通訊社 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中央通讯社 | ||||||
| |||||||
The Central News Agency (Chinese: 中央通訊社; CNA) is the national news agency of the Republic of China (Taiwan).[2] Founded by the Kuomintang in Guangzhou in 1924, it is Taiwan's oldest and largest news agency.[4] Following the Chinese Civil War, CNA relocated from mainland China to Taiwan. CNA operated as a private company from 1973 until 1996, when it became a government-funded corporation and Taiwan's national news agency.[2][4]
Content
CNA publishes content in Chinese, and in English and Japanese under its Focus Taiwan brand.[5] The Focus Taiwan website mostly reports government statements, weather updates, and major criminal cases, and occasionally reports features related to issues of national interest.
In July 2024, an Indonesian-language version of CNA's website was launched,[6] with articles translated from Chinese and English using artificial intelligence and a team of Indonesian-speaking editors.[7] A Spanish language edition, Enfoque en Taiwán, was closed 31 March 2021.[3]
History
Founding
On March 28, 1924, the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee decided to establish a news agency under the party's propaganda department[8]: 134 and required local party branches and members to provide news materials.[9]: 10–11 On April 1, CNA was founded in Guangzhou and began to distribute news wires as the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee Propaganda Department Agency.[9]: 23 When the Kuomintang government established its seat in Guangzhou on July 1, 1925, the agency became responsible for editing and distributing official documents and information from the party central committee; the number of daily dispatches increased from one per day to two to three a day.[9]: 26
In 1927, the head of the Kuomintang propaganda department's publishing division, Yin Shuxian, became the director of the agency. The agency assumed responsibility for inspection and propaganda, which has been described as effectively serving as the party's news monitoring and censorship arm.[8]: 134
When Chiang Kai-shek decided to expand the Kuomintang's news operation, he tasked Hsiao Tung-tzu, one of four "senior secretaries" of the party's propaganda department who had no experience in journalism, to reorganize the news agency. Hsiao proposed three changes: separate the agency from the Central Executive Committee and rename it to "Central News Agency", establish a professional radio news station, and allow the agency to gather news independently within the limits of the law and party regulations.[10]: 3–4
Chiang agreed to the recommendations and appointed Hsiao as the director of the newly-formed CNA in 1932. The agency moved out of the Kuomintang headquarters in Dingjiaqiao, Nanjing to three longtang buildings on Shoukang Lane in Xinjiekou.[10]: 4
In 1936, CNA established its first bureau outside China in Tokyo with journalist Chen Bosheng as Sino-Japanese relations continued to deteriorate before the Second Sino-Japanese War. By 1937, CNA had 10 bureaus, 21 correspondents, and 159 Chinese-language newspapers that subscribe to its wire service.[11]: 13 During the Second Sino-Japanese War, commercial newspapers relied heavily on CNA wires, including Chinese Communist Party-owned Xinhua Daily, which nearly 89% of its content originated from CNA.[12]: 39 The agency's scale and financial support from Kuomintang during a wartime economic downturn also caused privately owned competitors, including Kuowen News Agency,[11]: 13 to close.[12]: 39
In Taiwan
After Kuomintang took control of Taiwan following Japan's surrender in 1945, CNA Taiwan Correspondent Yeh Ming-hsun flew to Taipei to take over the bureaus and news operation of Dōmei Tsushin, the state news agency of the Empire of Japan.[13]: 5 The agency's headquarters were relocated to Taipei in 1949, following the defeat of the Kuomintang government in mainland China during the Chinese Civil War.
Despite the corporatisation of the agency in 1973, it continued to receive heavy government subsidies, and remained the nation's official agency. At the time, CNA journalists received preferential treatment on various occasions, mostly government-related press conferences.
After democratization, on 1 July 1996, the agency became a non-profit organisation under a bill passed by the Legislative Yuan.[1] From 2005–2010, CNA's web traffic in Taiwan lagged behind other local, and even mainland Chinese, outlets.[14]: 873
As of 2022, it is still Taiwan's official news agency, and received part of its funding from the Executive Yuan.
News anchor Hu Wan-ling was appointed the president of CNA on October 30, 2023.[15]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f "About Us – Focus Taiwan – CNA English news". FocusTaiwan.tw. Central News Agency. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
- ^ a b c "About Focus Taiwan (CNA English News)". Central News Agency. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
The Central News Agency (CNA) is the national news agency of the Republic of China (ROC) and the most influential news organization in Taiwan.
- ^ a b "CNA pondrá fin a sus servicios informativos en idioma español". Enfoque en Taiwán. Central News Agency (Taiwan). Retrieved April 26, 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ a b Copper, John F. (October 8, 2024). Historical Dictionary of Taiwan (Republic of China). Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-5381-8488-2. Retrieved March 2, 2026 – via Google Books.
- ^ "About Us". Focus Taiwan – CNA English News. Retrieved October 30, 2024.
- ^ Yang, Evelyn (June 21, 2024). "Taiwan's CNA to mark 100th anniversary with events, new initiatives". Central News Agency. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
- ^ "Focus Taiwan launches Indonesian-language news site". Central News Agency. July 1, 2024. Retrieved July 1, 2024.
- ^ a b Reed, Christopher A. (August 15, 2022). "Competing with the marketplace: The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)'s Department of Propaganda and its political publishing program, 1924–1937". Parties as Governments in Eurasia, 1913–1991. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003264972-6. ISBN 978-1-003-26497-2. Retrieved March 2, 2026.
- ^ a b c Zhongyang Tongxun She 中央通訊社 [Central News Agency] (in Traditional Chinese). Central News Agency. November 1971.
- ^ a b Chou, Pei-ching (1991). Zhongyang She de gushi (shang): Minguo er shi yi zhi liu shi yi nian 中央社的故事（上）——民國二十一年至六十一年 [The story of the Central News Agency: Minguo year 21 to 61] (in Traditional Chinese). San Min Book. ISBN 978-957-14-1766-0.
- ^ a b 馮, 志翔 (April 2015). Xiao Tongzi zhuan 蕭同茲傳 [Biography of Hsiao Tung-tzu] (PDF) (in Traditional Chinese) (Digital ed.). Puomo Digital Publishing.
- ^ a b Chen, Chih-chang (August 24, 2016). Chongqi luzao: qian Tai chuqi de Zhongyang Ribao (1949–1953) 重起爐灶：遷臺初期的《中央日報》（1949–1953） [The Early Development of "Central Daily News" in Taiwan (1949–1953)] (in Traditional Chinese). Chih Chih Academic Publishing. ISBN 978-986-5681-68-5.
- ^ Central News Agency (2004). 60 Years in Taiwan: The Land and the People. Central News Agency. ISBN 978-957-28327-3-8. Retrieved March 2, 2026.
- ^ Liu, Yu-li; Chou, Yuntsai; Tseng, Kuo-feng; Chen, Ru-Shou Robert; Chiang, Yi-hsuan; Chen, Ping-Hung; Chuang, Chun-Fa (January 1, 2016). "Media Ownership and Concentration in Taiwan Get access Arrow". In Noam, Eli M. (ed.). Who Owns the World's Media? Media Concentration and Ownership around the World. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199987238.003.0028. ISBN 978-0-19-998723-8.
- ^ Thomson, Jono (October 30, 2024). "Taiwan's public news agency appoints new president". Taiwan News. Retrieved October 30, 2024.