“We will save our own country” and “Against media monopoly. Against Chinese intervention,” National Taiwan University (NTU) graduate student Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) shouted as he stood atop a minivan on Monday night last week, leading a protest against the planned takeover of the Next Media Group’s four Taiwanese outlets by a local consortium that includes the Want Want China Times Group.

The Want Want China Times Group owns a chain of major media operations in Taiwan, including the China Times, China Times Weekly magazine, the Want Daily, CtiTV and China Television Co.