Indeed, Beijing has a built-in tendency to censor the press, apply pressures leading to self-censorship and tightly restrict journalists' movements. It also has an aversion to freedom of expression by political dissidents. In contrast with these weaknesses, Taipei must take advantage of its own strong points, which include the old real estate agent's credo - location, location, location - plus freedom of operation, technological expertise and, hopefully, enlightened government encouragement.
The ROC's democratic institutions are surging, computer and cable industries are state of the art and financial channels are liberalizing. Yet, in contrast with other East Asian capitals, comparatively few reporters from abroad are permanently stationed in Taipei, mostly out of fear of incurring Beijing wrath.
Even with restrictions, Mainland China realizes it needs a big foreign press corps to parrot its official pronouncements while keeping true investigative reporting to a minimum. About 250 foreign reporters are permanently based in Beijing. Some 40 more work in Shanghai.
Efforts to set up a club in Beijing for foreign correspondents to get away from official control have been thwarted by authorities. A club that was just getting on its feet on the premises of the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing was "discouraged" after the Tienanmen Square crackdown of 1989. The Foreign Ministry later switched its regular briefings from the ministry auditorium to the International Club and said that doing so answered reporters' requests for a press club.
Tokyo has 788 accredited foreign correspondents including Japanese working for foreign agencies. The 303 reporters from American media outnumber those from any other single country.
Seoul, historically a backwater for foreign correspondents since the Korean War, now has more than 100 bona fide reporters from abroad, led by Japanese and Americans. South Korea's booming economy and the threat of conflict with North Korea are the draw.
Hong Kong has a mushrooming population of foreign reporters. With 36,000 Americans now the second largest expatriate group in Hong Kong (the first, Filipinos, mainly domestic workers, number 140,000) U.S. media like Fortune and The Washington Post have actually added bureaus there in the last year.
Bangkok, Singapore, Manila and Jakarta all have more foreign journalists based in their cities than Taipei. Taipei, capital of the world's 14th largest trading nation, has about the same number of permanently based foreign correspondents as Pyongyang, Kuala Lumpur, Phnom Penh, Vietnam and Macao.
