Entity Type: Domestic Media Company

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.

Excellence Global Media Corporation (卓越全球傳媒股份有限公司) is a Taipei-based media company incorporated on May 27, 2019, under Taiwan’s company registry (統編: 82886718), with registered capital of NT$5 million. It is the corporate parent of Excellence Magazine (卓越雜誌), a Taiwan business and finance monthly founded in 1984. As of March 2026, the company is chaired by Zheng Yizhang (鄭玉章), who also controls a network of at least thirteen affiliated companies spanning printing, media, food and beverage, and international trade. Excellence Magazine president Xu Banghao (徐邦浩) serves as a director with equal shareholding to the chairman. The company has documented connections with CCP and Chinese government entities, including co-publishing roles in CCP-organized cross-strait cultural events and a 2024 delegation visit to Xiamen touring state-directed Taiwan youth incubator facilities, during which delegation members applied for PRC mainland resident permits. It is headquartered at 7F-1, 75 Bade Road Section 3, Songshan District, Taipei.

Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) is a Taiwan-based media conglomerate established in 2009 following the acquisition of the China Times Group (中國時報集團) by Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團), a food and beverage company whose founder and chairman, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), derives the majority of his business revenue from mainland China. The acquisition, completed in November 2008 for approximately NT$20.4 billion, gave Want Want control of the China Times newspaper and television channels CTV and CTiTV. Freedom House has identified the group as a prominent example of Beijing wielding influence in Taiwan by co-opting local business elites with commercial interests in China, noting that its outlets carry pro-Beijing content and have reduced coverage of human rights issues in China under Tsai’s ownership. A peer-reviewed study in the American Political Science Review found that under Tsai’s ownership the group’s outlets are affiliated with the PRC-led Belt and Road News Alliance and that media scholars and former employees report the organization receives editorial directives from the PRC’s Taiwan Affairs Office. In 2014, Tsai led a delegation to meet Xinhua News Agency (新華社) president Li Congjun (李從軍), following which the two organizations signed a Strategic Cooperation Memorandum (戰略合作備忘錄). In 2019 the Financial Times reported that journalists at China Times and CTiTV said Taiwan Affairs Office officials “call every day” to shape coverage; Want Want sued the Financial Times, its reporter, and Taiwan’s Central News Agency for defamation, though prosecutors ultimately dropped the cases. CTiTV’s broadcast license was not renewed by Taiwan’s National Communications Commission on November 18, 2020, citing repeated violations of regulations and failure of internal control mechanisms; the channel went off air on December 11, 2020.