Taiwan bans Chinese streaming services Tencent and iQiyi amid heightened tensions

Amid constantly flaring tensions between Taiwan and China, Taipei, on August 20, announced that it was banning iQiyi and Tencent from streaming videos on the island. Both the Chinese streaming services have been “operating illegally” in Taiwan by partnering with local broadcasters and distributors to provide video content, a government notice alleged.

In its latest regulation, Taiwan’s National Communications Commission prohibited any Taiwanese individual or company from providing their services to mainland Chinese streaming operators and relaying their content. As of now, the prohibition is provisional owing to the 14 days public comment period. However, if there is no plausible objection, it would become a permanent rule taking effect from September 3.

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Over 100 million subscribers 

Both Beijing based iQIYI and Shenzhen based Tencent offer services that are similar to Netflix and Amazon Prime videoes. Along with streaming licences content, they also produce original content. A report published last week stated that Tencent had 114 million subscribers while IQIYI had nearly 105 million with the majority of them in mainland China.

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The announcement comes as Taiwan accused China of launching a cyberattack on its agencies. According to reports, Chinese hackers allegedly infiltrated 10 Taiwanese government agencies and gained access to 6,000 email accounts in an attempt to steal data from the authorities. The full impact and damage of the alleged security breach is still being investigated by authorities.

Officials reported the data breach on August 19 and claimed that the damage done by the hack was substantial. Taiwan has accused China of launching constant cyberattacks since 2016, ever since President Tsai Ing-wen was elected. The Taiwanese leader has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that the island is part of ‘one China’. While China considers Taiwan to be a part of its mainland and has vowed to see it return under its control, the island views itself as de facto independent.

(Image credit: Tencent/website)