The needs of Apple Daily for the existing political power from China

As new democracies had moved away from the existing political power, the old authoritarian political systems still tried to hold tightly in order to maintain its political status and power in the country in a desperate manner. This is a typical case of Taiwan and the People Republic of China whereby the Kuo Min Tang (KMT) still tried to maintain its effective control of civil society through a combination of coercion and cooptation trough the development of a “patron-client relationship” between the state and the media. The examples will be the major publications of both the United Daily News and the China Times in Taiwan, which show China still wanted to pursue a policy of dependent development close to the KMT so as to surpress the public participation to depoliticize and demobilize the public sphere. These show that the media do play an increasingly active and significant role as political agents, especially the case of Apple Daily, so as to providing the chance of a platform for the alternative sources of voices and perspectives. As the instruments of popular mobilization and responsive politics, the media can both promote and support regime change and democratic consolidation of the media; also, they can be the mouthpiece for political authoritarianism, helping to preserve a conservative style of government.