Current Status: Active

West Pacific Press (西太平洋通訊社), or WPP, is a Taipei-registered news agency incorporated on May 4, 2023, under Taiwan’s company registry (統編: 94104181), describing itself as “the first and only” Asia-Pacific media platform focused on West Pacific nations. WPP’s own website identifies it as a subsidiary of Excellence Media Group (卓越媒體集團). The company was founded by Wei Botao (韋伯韜), a former Republic of China government official who served as Director-General of the Executive Yuan’s budget office from June 10, 1996 to May 20, 2000, and chairman of Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation, and who has a documented history of cross-strait business engagement with Xiamen — including a 2011 meeting with Xiamen Mayor Liu Keqing (劉可清) to discuss establishing a joint venture financial company in the city’s Cross-Strait Financial Center. Wei’s published writing includes explicit advocacy for PRC geopolitical superiority, arguing that China practices a benevolent “kingly way” (王道) in world affairs. Xu Banghao (徐邦浩), president of Excellence Magazine (卓越雜誌) and head of Excellence Media Group, became WPP’s chairman and responsible person in September 2024 following an internal restructuring. Despite its ambitious self-description, WPP’s paid-in capital stands at just NT$325,000 and its registered address is shared by over 100 other companies — a common virtual office arrangement in Taiwan that raises questions about the company’s physical infrastructure, though WPP may operate from a separate location not reflected in its corporate registration. Alongside Taiwan defense and security reporting, WPP’s lifestyle section carries content sourced directly from the Fujian Southeast Network (福建東南網), a Fujian provincial state media outlet, including multiple items about Xiamen’s Huli District, alongside unedited commercial press releases accepted as editorial content. WPP signed media cooperation agreements with Korean outlets Korea Focus and Korea Daily in 2019.

Excellence Magazine (卓越雜誌) is a Taiwan-based monthly business and finance publication founded in September 1984. The magazine claims a monthly circulation of 50,000 copies and targets middle-class professionals aged 28–50, with a focus on financial, technology, and corporate management readers. Its editorial scope covers business management, economics, politics, health, and environmental topics. The magazine cites multiple Golden Tripod Awards (金鼎獎) in its own promotional materials, referencing the “Government Information Office’s Golden Tripod Awards” — suggesting that if such honors were received, they date to before 2012, when the Government Information Office (新聞局) was abolished and administration of the award passed to the Ministry of Culture (文化部). The magazine does not appear in published winner lists for any year where records are available. The current corporate parent, Excellence Global Media Corporation (卓越全球傳媒股份有限公司), was incorporated in 2019; no publicly documented connection between the current entity and the magazine’s original ownership structure is established in available public records. The magazine’s content, as visible on its website, consists primarily of advertorial features on corporate clients and local government initiatives, alongside aggregated commentary on financial and geopolitical topics attributed to its editorial department, with limited evidence of serious reporting. The magazine is currently led by president Xu Banghao (徐邦浩) and has since 2019 maintained a dedicated Korea news section (臺韓快訊) and pursued media partnerships in Seoul, including a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s Applemedia Group, whose representative director Kim Hong-gi (金洪基) explicitly framed Excellence Magazine as a news integration hub for content from mainland China, Hong Kong, and the broader Chinese-speaking world directed at Korean audiences.