ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 examines how Taiwan’s continued economic dependence on the US combined with the Taiwanese state’s economic neoliberalism to engender improvements in Taiwan’s press freedom in the age of neoliberal globalization (1988–2008). In particular, because Taiwan, through its dependence, remained subordinate to the US and economic liberalization weakened the autonomy of the Taiwanese state relative to the market, Taiwanese state elites adopted a series of neoliberal political and economic reforms promoted by the US government globally; they also introduced America’s neoliberal ideas of the media into Taiwan, to avoid US economic sanctions and strive for US support (external pressures) and to respond to social movements and political opposition, seeking to maintain their ruling legitimacy (internal pressures). Together, these factors caused the lifting of the press ban, liberalization of television industries, privatization or publicization of party-/state-owned media, and deregulation of privately owned media. Along with the processes of economic liberalization and media marketization, private capitals replaced the government as the main force interfering in media operation and news content, leading to the persistence of media concentration and the emergence of market-oriented self-censorship.
