Central News Agency
Taiwanese state-funded, center
Background
CNA was founded on April 1, 1924, in Guangzhou by the Kuomintang (KMT) as the Republic of China's official wire service, and it followed the ROC government through the Northern Expedition, the war against Japan, and the Chinese Civil War. After the KMT's defeat on the mainland, CNA relocated to Taiwan in 1949 alongside the ROC government. It grew into one of Asia's major wire services, covering key Cold War events including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the ROC's 1971 exit from the United Nations. CNA operated as a private company from 1973 to 1996, then was restructured as a government-funded corporation; the current legal framework dates to the Central News Agency Establishment Act of 1999, which constituted it as a non-profit. The government's share of its budget has declined steadily — from near-total reliance on public funds to roughly a quarter by the mid-2020s — as commercial revenues from subscriptions and licensing grew. CNA produces more than 1,000 stories daily in Chinese, English, and Japanese. Researchers at the State Media Monitor classify it as 'state-funded and state-managed' but not 'state-controlled,' noting no documented incidents of direct editorial interference, while also noting the absence of a formal independence charter or external evaluation mechanism. Its English-language news portal is branded Focus Taiwan.
Sources
- Central News Agency (Taiwan) — Wikipedia
- Central News Agency Establishment Act — Laws & Regulations Database of the ROC
- Central News Agency (CNA) – State Media Monitor
- Central News Agency (CNA) / Focus Taiwan — Media Bias/Fact Check
- About Us — Focus Taiwan (CNA English News)
Profile compiled 2026-09-08; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.