The China Times was founded in February 1950 under the name Credit News, and focused mainly on price indices. The name changed on January 1, 1960 to Credit Newspaper, a daily with comprehensive news coverage. Color printing was introduced on March 29, 1968, the first newspaper in Asia to make the move. On September 1, 1968, the name changed once again to China Times, presently based in the Wanhua District, Taipei. The founder, Yu Jizhong, died in 2002, leaving the presidency of the paper to his second son, Yu Jianxin. Yu Jizhong's eldest daughter, Yu Fanying, is the vice president. The bureau chief is Lin Shengfen, the general manager Huang Zhaosong, and the chief editor Huang Qinglong. In 2008, the China Times Group was sold to the Want Want Holdings Limited, the largest rice cake manufacturer in Taiwan. The China Times Publishing Company was the first publishing company in Taiwan to publicly issue shares. China Times once managed a Taiwan-based baseball team, the China Times Eagles, but a betting scandal dissolved the team seven years into its operation. The China Times Group has set up several charity organizations. In November 2019 William Wang, a Chinese spy who defected to Australia, claimed that Want Want China Times Group channels CTV and CTi-TV had received Chinese funding in return for airing stories unfavorable of the Taiwanese government. The Want Want China Times Group denied these allegations.
China Times is associated with the Japanese newspaperDaily Yomiuri, including cooperation between China Times Travel Agency and Daily Yomiuri Travel Agency.
WantChinaTimes.com, established in 2010, is an English-language Chinese news website owned by The China Times Group. The site often reprints news items from the English-language edition of the PRC-controlled Xinhua News Agency. According to Chien-Jung Hsu of National Dong Hwa University, "Want China Times seems to be a representative of the Xinhua News Agency in Taiwan."
Awards
China Times Open Book Award:
Established in 1989 by its literary supplement, Open Book, annual awards are given to 50 book categories, including fiction, non-fiction and children's
Political position
Since China Times was bought by the pro-China Taiwanese businessman tycoon Tsai Eng-Meng, head of Want Want Holdings Limited, in 2008, the Times has veered into an editorial stance more sympathetic to the positions of the Communist Party of China. It has since been criticized of being "very biased" in favor of positive news about China. In a 2020 interview with Stand News, an anonymous Times journalist described the editorial stance of the paper as having changed completely after Tsai's acquisition. The interviewed journalist said the newspaper mandated the use of vocabulary that supports the PRC's positions on Taiwan, and prevented its reporters from covering topics that may be seen as against China, such as issues involving the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Tsai himself has openly admitted to airing commercials from PRC authorities. Before Tsai Eng-Meng bought it, The political position of the China Times had been slanted towards the pan-blue coalition, although it was considered more moderate than the United Daily News. Relations with the Kuomintang nationalist government have in the past been close, but when the China Times U.S. Edition ceased publication after the Chiang Nan Murder Case in October 1984, the China Times broke with then KMT president Chiang Ching-kuo in protest. Since the 1980s, the China Times has developed a more liberal and pro-democratic stance, often concerned with progressive issues such as social justice or environmental concerns. During the 1990s, the China Times was often supportive of the oppositionDemocratic Progressive Party, more on the grounds of liberalism rather than Taiwanese Independence. China Television used to be owned by the Kuomintang and was sold to the China Times group in 2006.
In 2019, Want Want China Times Media Group filed defamation claims against the Financial Times and announced the intent to file defamation claims against any news organization that cited the Financial Times report. The Financial Times report claimed that the China Times and fellow Want Want Media Group company CtiTV were taking daily instruction from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office. Reporters Without Borders called the lawsuit a "an abusive libel suit” and accused Want Want of harassing an experienced journalist.
