The Exchange Between the Two Sides of the Taiwan Straits: A Telecommunication Perspective

The Exchange Between the Two Sides of the Taiwan Straits: A Telecommunication Perspective

自從政府在去年三月頒佈國統綱領，兩岸人民欠缺相互了解的問題逐漸浮現。唯有藉助傳播，方能有效解決。本文由兩岸在「舊媒介」－－如廣播與電視，及「新媒介」－－如直播衛星及有線電視的發展，檢討電訊傳播在統一過程中所扮演的角色，及兩岸交流的展望。過去臺灣的經濟發展，被譽為一項奇蹟，然而媒介在政府的管制下，未能有公平、開放的競爭及生存空間。其扮演的角色，大致符合發展新聞 學理論的描述：「由政府動員以支持國家建設」。取消戒嚴之後，電訊傳播的小耳朵、第四台等蓬勃發展，刺激其他媒介做相對應的調整，才使媒介有更具彈性的發展機會。相對的，大陸自一九七八年展開一連串經濟改革，成為世界上擁有最多電視機（以絕對數值計，非普及率）的國家，通信衛星的發展，亦使地面台的數目激增至一萬三千座。然而由於改革的主控權操在政府手中，媒介仍然沒有自主。在此階段，也唯有拋開意識型態，兩岸方能有交流的可能。

Telecommunication as modern means of communication appeared in China as early as the latter part of 19th century. In 1877 and 1878 the last dynasty in China's history, the Quing government, began to run official telecommunication and postal undertaking (Wang, 1988). The first radio stations in China were set up by foreign occupying forces in the early 1920s. The first radio station run by Chinese was established in Harbin in 1926. The Central Radio Station in the then Koumintang (KMT) capital of China, Nanjing, run by the KMT Government made its debut in August 1928. On 30 December 1940, the Yanan Xinhua Station was inaugurated by the Chinese Communist Party in Yanan, the then Revolutionary base. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was renamed the Central People's Broadcasting Station (CPBS) which is still the only nationwide broadcasting radio station in Mainland China (Lehrke, 1992). Radio, as well as other telecommunication, progressed very slow in China from the 1920s to 1949 due to the Sino-Japanese War and the Civil War. After the Communist regime occupied Mainland China in 1949, there was a 'raido war' between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. The radio war signified the ideological confrontation between the KMT government in Taiwan and the Communist regime in Mainland China. The situation has been changed a little bit after 1978, shortly after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the PRC and the United States (Rudolph, 1984).