Over the past few years the Government Information Office has had probably the highest profile of any government agency. Besides the fact that the GIO director is the official government spokesman, and thus often appears in the media, the media itself-including film and broadcasting, over which the GIO has jurisdiction-has been a hot topic, and the GIO has come in for a lot of criticism and dispute because of its multiple functions. How has this agency, half a century old, grown into its current form? What has been its history? In our increasingly fast-paced society, what kind of role should it play?

Every April at budget time, legislators often question the GIO director-general about the status of the GIO. "Why does the official government spokesman oversee so many other things?" "The GIO does international information work. It should focus on looking after Taiwan's international image, and stay out of other things."

To be sure, the birth of the GIO traces back to international relations.

Trouble on the horizon

It was 1935. Japanese militarism was setting its sights on China; Manchuria was already in Japanese hands. War was imminent. The Communist Party, basing its appeal on rural revolution and communist internationalism, was waiting for its opportunity.

At that time foreign reporters were gathering, and rumors were flying, but hard news was hard to come by. Wire reports were cut to pieces by censors. Foreign reporters complained. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek called on Tung Hsien-kuang, who ran a newspaper in Shanghai, to take over review of outgoing news wires. An Australian advisor of Chiang's, W.H. Donald, stressed to Tung the importance of this job. With Sino-Japanese relations deteriorating, China would need all the friends it could get, so he asked Tung to accept the post "for the good of the nation." Tung was happy to do something for his country in his field of experience. He recruited six staff members fluent in English, French, and Russian. This was the earliest precursor of the GIO.

After the Xi'an incident, the situation became even more tense. Tung, having an international perspective from his days as a newspaperman, recommended that the government use alternate forms of warfare-including international propaganda-to complement conventional arms. It is said Chiang was very impressed with this idea. Tung sought out Tseng Hsu-pai, Tung's old partner in newspaper publishing, who fleshed out Tung's ideas based on books and documents Tung gave to him.

Tseng's memoirs record that no one then had even heard of "international communications theory," or "international relations theory." His approach was to look at things from the reporters' point of view. Tseng provided several guiding principles for the newly established International Propaganda Department (IPD): Provide true information; do not lie; do not exaggerate or obfuscate; and "move others with the truth, convince others with sincerity." Only through the truth could China win friends.

In 1991, when new GIO director-general Jason Hu took office, he advocated the same ideas as so many years before: "Honesty is the best policy." Hu made a well-known remark: "The government spokesman is not a make-up artist, but is a fax machine." (In Chinese, "fax" is translated as "conveyor of the real thing.") This has been the declared principle of "information guidance" for half a century.

Another core principle is "timeliness." In the early days worked focused on the international audience. But things have been changing since the lifting of martial law. Public opinion has been a more vital consideration in state policy, and it is more and more important for the GIO to serve as a channel of communication with the public.

Current chief secretary Yen Jeng-chang has been in the GIO for more than two decades. He has watched as recent GIO directors have given increasing weight to the domestic audience. Yen says that this is a matter of keeping up with the times. Taiwan has been changing rapidly, so naturally the weight given to domestic and foreign affairs has been adjusted.

Weak states have no friends

Francois Y. Yin, recently retired as GIO chief secretary, was stationed in Latin America, Italy, and France for nearly 20 years. He sees domestic and international concerns as being two sides of the same coin, with international relations being just an extension of domestic strength. The first time he went to France, in 1979, France was playing the China card, and public opinion was left-oriented. ROC personnel in France had to go in person to the police station like tourists every three months just to do their visas. You can imagine how hard it was to do propaganda work at that time.

But on his second trip to France, in 1988, Taiwan had already lifted martial law, and the French were affirming the ROC's democratization, and also there were many opportunities for foreign firms coming up under the Six Year National Development Plan, so it was much easier to get people to listen. (Yin recently received an award from the French government in recognition of his contribution to exchanges between the two countries.) It is said, "weak states have no friends." Yin believes that every overseas Chinese knows this feeling, so of course it is even stronger for official personnel abroad.

Looking back to the early days, what could the IPD offer to persuade international society, as-ever dominated by realpolitik, to support China?

Tseng says that their first tool was compassion. They showed the cruelty of the enemy, and tried to make international society understand the limitlessness of Japanese ambitions and the necessity of forming a united front to meet the enemy. Naturally factual evidence was needed to support these positions, and it was best if "third parties" could transmit that information. Based on this principle Tseng determined that the focus of information work would be on persuading friendly governments and elected representatives and civic groups which could influence national policies. Tseng especially saw social elites as the moving force in public opinion. He felt it was necessary to win the support of key academics and journalists.

The GIO has followed this principle for these many years. Chang King-yuh, the first GIO head from the ranks of academia, declared: "Academia is the upstream source for the media, while the media is the upstream source for public opinion." He hoped that the GIO could play a facilitating role, building local academia, media, and public opinion into a powerful river, so that every individual could play a part in shaping and spreading a positive national image.

Serving reporters

Though the GIO was founded in a period of national adversity, because of the news instincts of those in charge, the IPD had a major impact right from its founding in undermining the enemy's image and bolstering the ROC's own. Also, the contributions of the news media and of some foreign reporters stationed in Shanghai cannot be overlooked. In his memoirs, Tseng especially cites Randall Gould and J.B. Bowell. These two reporters wrote anti-Japanese pieces daily; despite being threatened by the Japanese, they still wrote the truth as they saw it. Bowell was later arrested and maltreated, leaving prison after the war as an invalid.

To get people to write reports favorable to the ROC, naturally data is critical. The primary duty of the IPD was to issue news releases every day. These had to be substantive and offer people what they needed, which at that time meant accurate reports on the war. Tung and Tseng personally went to the front to visit top generals to ask them to issue daily reports from the front, and to hold press conferences at important moments.

Helping reporters get information in a crisis is still a key role for the GIO. During last year's presidential elections, when the PRC was holding threatening maneuvers near Taiwan, tensions rose sharply in the Taiwan Strait, and so did the number of foreign reporters here, from 200 or so to 600-700. In Taiwan, they discovered that there was not nearly as much anxiety as they had anticipated. Some foreign journalists headed off to Kinmen and Matsu to search for more signs of military preparations, or simply gave up and headed over to the PRC side.

Seeing the reporters' quandary, the GIO twice asked the Ministry of Defense to stage maneuvers. The second maneuvers were held in Hukou; 180 foreign reporters went. Going back to the days of the IPD, when many staff, former reporters themselves, could sympathize, it has always been the GIO tradition to serve journalists.

Going abroad

The IPD fell back as the front line shifted westward; it moved from Shanghai to Nanking, then to Hankou, and then, a year later, to Chungking. The most important duty then was to explain to foreign reporters that the lengthening of the front line was a strategic move to extend the war so that world opinion, amidst rampant appeasement, would not forget China. In Hankou the IPD began to grow, creating an overseas network with offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, and Hong Kong. One of the IPD's major successes then was to arrange a press conference, an address before Congress, and a six week lecture tour across the US for Madame Chiang Kai-shek. This trip had a great effect in securing broad, long-term support from the American public for the ROC.

In the Chinese Civil War, many foreign reporters sympathized with the Chinese Communist Party, arguing that they were rural reformers. In particular, Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China was very influential. It greatly improved the CCP's international image, even affecting the policy recommendations of US General George Marshall, who was mediating in the Civil War. It was at this time, 1947, amidst national crisis, that, with the formal passage of the ROC constitution, the IPD became the Government Information Office.

Within two years, the CCP had won the Civil War, and the GIO was disbanded. After the government moved to Taiwan, an office of the spokesman of the president was established, with Shen Chuang-huan taking the new post. It was only when the government had stabilized itself in Taiwan that it began rebuilding the old government structure. When preparations were complete, the Legislative Yuan passed a new GIO organic law, and the GIO was formally reborn on Taiwan. That was in January of 1954, and the first director-general was Wu Nan-ju.

The right people for the job

The close relationship between the GIO and reporters is not only a GIO tradition, it has also attracted many talented young people into the agency. Lin Shih-wei, who came to work in the GIO's International Information Services Department (IISD) only last year, formerly worked in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. But he decided to take the special exam for international news personnel in hopes of getting into the GIO work environment, where he would meet with reporters regularly and engage in timely and challenging work.

Many of the personnel recruited to the GIO in the early years were recruited directly by the director or vice director. This type of personnel management is fine for small firms with few people. But when an organization gets big, and people come from all over, it's hard to avoid uneven quality. In 1977, when Ting Mao-shih was GIO head, some of the GIO personnel had been recruited through occasional special exams or from people who had studied abroad; others were transfers from other government agencies. Ting, looking to the long term, wanted to establish a comprehensive and fair personnel system.

It was decided that beginning in 1978 the Examination Yuan should hold a special exam for international news personnel modeled on the Foreign Ministry special exam. This opened a door for young people of talent hoping to get into this field; 19 such exams have been held so far. Many of those who took the exam in the early years are now office chiefs. For example, Amy Shou-chi Liu, director of the Domestic Information Services Division, came in through this path. People like Liu are career GIO people, and their experience and expertise has been of great help in their duties. In particular, with the dramatic changes in the international situation and domestic society, politics, and media, such "expert civil servants" have made indelible contributions.

The GIO expands

Hong Chong-jan, director of the Radio and Television Affairs Department (RTAD), has been in that unit for nearly 20 years. She has seen Taiwan's society change at all levels, and knows very clearly that the government must move more quickly-especially with revising laws-to keep up with society. The last decade has seen a revolutionary change in broadcasting. Commercial interests are now very powerful, and one cannot ignore the impact on the public.

She recalls how things have changed: Until 1993, when the cable TV law opened up broadcasting, staff in her office faced danger, long hours, and retribution from operators for cutting illegal cables. The GIO's image suffered greatly. The RTAD had heavy responsibilities, and though it also had great power, there were crises everywhere: Some operators protested, others enlisted elected officials to intervene and pressure the RTAD. It is lucky that Hong has been along for the ride the whole way, and grown with the industry, otherwise it would be difficult to know just how much control is needed. Her principles are "law, openness, fairness." Her main hope now is revise the laws to meet the demands of the times, so that executive agencies can be more efficient.

Film is another industry "guided" by the GIO. Though not as complex as the broadcast industry, it has its headaches as well, especially the poor economic returns on domestic films. Frank J.K. Chen, director of the Motion Picture Affairs Department, sighs, "From the outside there is Hollywood and Hong Kong, while in the country there are videotapes and cable TV. The audience for domestic films is shrinking. Fortunately we have a GIO subsidy fund." But how long can a film industry survive on subsidies? Chen is just as worried as those in the business, but it is still unclear what can be done.

Though many people are skeptical of the many roles the GIO plays-acting as ROC spokesperson home and abroad and "supervising" publications, broadcasting, and film-it is not the GIO itself that should be the focus of criticism, avers chief secretary Yen Jeng-chang.

The GIO was originally charged with two roles: international and domestic information work. In 1972, when Frederick Chien (currently speaker of the National Assembly) became GIO chief, it had only six sections: departments of domestic information, international information, and translation and compilation; and divisions of personnel, accounting, and protocol. In 1973, it was generally agreed that jurisdiction over the media should be unified in a single agency. So the Executive Yuan took publication industry affairs from the Ministry of the Interior, and film and broadcast affairs out of the Bureau of Education and Culture, and moved both to the GIO. The GIO doubled in size overnight, assuming its current structure of six departments and three divisions.

After taking on the three new departments, the GIO began new tasks. On the one hand it drafted the "Radio and Television Law," providing the first legal foundations for the long-extant radio and TV industries. Also, it created the ROC Film Development Fund, and established a film archive, thus saving many old films and the great effort their makers had put into them. The film archive is currently seeking cooperation from cable TV operators to catalogue and preserve old Taiwanese films, make videotape copies, and establish a film information data bank.

Both player and referee?

Yen Jeng-chang concludes: Whether its responsibilities are expanded or reduced is not, in fact, the GIO's problem. As a government agency, its function is not to ask for or reject specific missions, but only to do well whatever work it is assigned.

As for the problem of the GIO's status, is there a consensus in the Legislative Yuan?

Hung Hsiu-chu, who sits on the legislative committee overseeing culture and education, has been the legislator most supportive of the GIO, and has shown the greatest understanding of its mission. She says that everyone has different views on the GIO's role and how well it is performing. The key to whether the GIO's functions will be revised is how well the GIO does in its current tasks. The legislature, she says, is to play a supervisory role, to see that the budget is not squandered, that executive agencies remain politically neutral, and that policy implementation is effective. There is no need for the legislature to decide for executive agencies what they should and should not do.

Liu Chin-hsing, a legislator from the Democratic Progressive Party, feels that the GIO's role should be clear-cut: to be the government's spokesman. As for the broadcast media, a body similar to the American FCC could be established, that can act fairly and does not fall under the influence of any party or faction.

Senior reporter Tang Hsiang-lung, who admits that he often "beats up on" the GIO in his newspaper stories, says that the GIO's media supervisory role is a special phenomenon left over from the martial law era. Now that the atmosphere is much more relaxed, why hasn't the structure been adjusted to match? Managing or overseeing the media is in fact at odds with the GIO's role of spokesman serving the media.

On the other hand, another senior reporter, Chu Te-hsi, doesn't think that the GIO has too many functions; also he denies that the various roles are contradictory. But naturally the role reporters like himself most care about is that of government spokesman. On this point Chu agrees with Tang.

The reporters' reporter

"A lot of times we can't get certain information. At times like these we have to ask the GIO director to get it for us." "When it comes to Executive Yuan affairs, we are second-hand disseminators of information. The GIO director plays the role of reporter for the reporters. His sense of the news and judgment have a tremendous impact." The views of these two senior journalists seem to represent the heartfelt feelings of all reporters on the Executive Yuan beat.

The GIO has had a storied past-"serving" reporters and "using" reporters-from its days being started up by former reporters, through the war against Japan, the Civil War, reconstruction in Taiwan, withdrawal from the United Nations, US derecognition, the economic miracle, the lifting of martial law, opening up contacts with the PRC, liberalizing the media, and substantive diplomacy, right up to the crises of the present day: declining competitiveness and the challenge of deteriorating social order. With the domestic and international media, it has recorded half a century of the nation's history. And like the media, facing the future, it must also pick up the pace and change faster, as the challenges become increasingly intense.

It is just as former chief secretary Francois Yin said: The domestic and international aspects are two sides of the same coin, and international relations is an extension of national strength. The media, representing public opinion, is a source and overseer of state policy. Whether or not the GIO can be "the reporters' reporter," and serve as a two-way channel of communication for government policies, will continue to be the greatest tests of its functions.

p.80

The first highlight of the GIO's 50th anniversary celebration was the opening of a new European Internet site. The four past and present GIO directors-general who attended have something in common: they all hold doctorates from leading US universities. Left to right, they are: Yu-ming Shaw, now Director of the Institute of International Relations, National Assembly Secretary-General Fredrick Chien, Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Chang King-yuh, and current GIO Director-General Su Chi.

p.81

On New Year's Day, 1954, the Government Information Office formally re-established in Taiwan. This interesting commemorative photo shows the office sign, the staff, and the small old building in which they worked. The GIO was located at #5 Paoching Road in those days. (courtesy of the GIO)

p.82

Following fast on the heels of the ending of martial law, the decision to allow travel to mainland China was another major event affecting Taiwan's society.

p.83

After the lifting of martial law and the legalization of new political parties, Taiwan entered a period of protests, with face-offs between protesters and police a common sight. Such scenes are a thing of the past.

p.84

The passage of the Radio and Television Law was a landmark in the growth of Taiwan's society. Taiwan has entered a highly competitive era for the media, and it is still not clear who the ultimate winners will be. (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)

p.85

Another milepost was the opening up of Taipei's rapid transit system. It's too bad that many citizens had already run out of patience with the long delays in construction. (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)

p.86

During last year's presidential election, when cross-strait relations were very tense, 722 reporters from around the world were in Taiwan. The GIO went all-out to take care of the journalists' needs. The photo shows foreign reporters gathered at the GIO, waiting to go to Hukou to observe military maneuvers especially arranged on their behalf.

Following fast on the heels of the ending of martial law, the decision to allow travel to mainland China was another major event affecting Taiwan's society.

After the lifting of martial law and the legalization of new political p arties, Taiwan entered a period of protests, with face-offs between protesters and police a common sight. Such scenes are a thing of the past.

The passage of the Radio and Television Law was a landmark in the growth of Taiwan's society. Taiwan has entered a highly competitive era for the media, and it is still not clear who the ultimate winners will be. （photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang）

Another milepost was the opening up of Taipei's rapid transit system. It 's too bad that many citizens had already run out of patience with the long delays in construction. （photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang）

During last year's presidential election, when cross-strait relations were very tense, 722 reporters from around the world were in Taiwan. The GIO went all-out to take care of the journalists' needs. The photo shows foreign reporters gathered at the GIO, waiting to go to Hukou to observe military maneuvers especially arranged on their behalf.