Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) strongly condemned the Chinese Communist Party’s interference in media autonomy and called it cross-border suppression of Taiwan on Tuesday, May 12. That came after China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Deputy Director-General Wu Xi (吳璽) called on media outlets on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to “expose the harm and and danger posed by Taiwan independence separatism and interference by external forces.”

Wu made the appeal at the 7th Cross-Strait Media Summit in Beijing on Tuesday. She said that Taiwanese separatist forces continue to spread false information and malicious rhetoric, incite anti-China sentiments and create confrontation, which undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a press release on the same day that the CCP has summoned certain Taiwanese media outlets to Beijing for indoctrination and effectively demanded that they cooperate with the Party’s suppression of Taiwan. The Council added that abusing press freedoms to follow CCP instructions violates multiple national security and criminal laws.

China came in 178th out of 180 countries included in Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 Press Freedom Index, ahead of only North Korea and Eritrea. Taiwan ranked 28th.