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Waging war over Taiwanese airwaves by Mark Magnier 
Waging war over Taiwanese airwaves By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2005 TAIPEI -- The radio show called ''Special Communications" was an unlikely hit, given that it consisted of announcers reading strings of numbers for 15 minutes. Taiwan used the mind- numbing program in the 1980s to send coded messages to its spies in mainland China. But like many Taiwanese propaganda broadcasts, it also could be picked up locally. To the surprise of many at the government-run Radio Taiwan International, the show soon developed a cult following among Taiwanese. Listeners, particularly former soldiers, started sending fan mail saying how much they enjoyed it, how it made them feel like secret agents, and how they had deciphered the code. ''I'd think, how absurd," said Chen Hsiao-Ping, a veteran at the station for 25 years. ''Here I am reading this stuff, and I don't even know what it means. How could they possibly understand?" The glory days of ''Special Communications" may be over, but Chen and her colleagues at Radio Taiwan still have plenty of work, as do members of the propaganda team at China's Central People's Radio Station, which is busy beaming programming the other way. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of mainland radio propaganda broadcasts into Taiwan and the 55th for Taiwan in the opposite direction. Over the decades, the weapons have changed, the tactics refined, the ideology softened. Shows on investments, popular culture, and tourism have largely edged out biting criticism and political dogma. But like two old soldiers locked in a wrestling grip, the broadcasts press doggedly on, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, outlasting even North and South Korea's loudspeaker battle across their tense demilitarized zone. ''This isn't just a broadcast," said Cheryl Lai, president of Radio Taiwan International. ''This is war. China sees it as a hot war. We see it as a cold war. But it's still a war." Chen, the broadcaster, grows animated as she recalls her early days at the station. Recruited in 1978 at age 18, she was tested, her family and friends screened, and her ideology reviewed for any hint of Communist sympathy before she got a job as ''professional political warfare agent," as presenters were then called. For most of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, propaganda airwaves in both directions were filled with hard-core screeds, slogans, and denunciations. But around the time Chen joined, the Taiwanese intelligence service had a new psychological weapon against China -- Theresa Deng, a Taiwanese singer known for her gentle love songs. A new program mixed Deng's music with soft-sell messages about the island. The show, which lasted a decade, proved hugely successful among mainlanders battered by the tumultuous 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. A few hundred miles across the Taiwan Strait, the Central People's Radio Station in Beijing also was working overtime to score points, shape minds, and reach Taiwanese listeners with its worldview. For about a decade after the national service began broadcasting on Aug. 5, 1954, Taiwanese listeners who tuned in heard Communist Party summaries, production statistics, and bitter denunciations of the Taipei government. Broadcasts encouraged Taiwanese to go on strike, rise up against their ''American toady" government, and renounce capitalism before a workers' revolution swept Taiwan. Mainland planners were also careful to include softer programming as well, particularly during big holidays such as the midautumn Moon Festival, to help temper the martial music and angry political attacks. But any hint of softness vanished with the advent of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, as broadcasters became swept up in the social turmoil. © Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company. |