TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — CNN International announced that it has opened a new bureau in Taipei that includes Senior International Correspondent Will Ripley.
According to a CNN press release issued on Thursday (Sept. 29), Ripley has already been based in Taipei for the past 12 months, during which time he has covered the simmering tensions between Taiwan and China. Since arriving in Taiwan, he has obtained exclusive interviews with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), and extensively covered the historic visit to Taiwan by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Senior Vice President & Managing Editor APAC, CNN International, Ellana Lee described Taiwan as having a "pivotal role" as the world order rapidly shifts, and having a presence in the country "gives us vital insight into that piece of the Asia-Pacific jigsaw in a rapidly evolving global geopolitical picture."
Before moving to Taipei, Ripley was based in Hong Kong and covered some of the biggest events in the region, including the mystery surrounding the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai's (彭帥) disappearance, last year's delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, the COVID pandemic, and 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests.
Yikes! Look at this gymnasium roof collapse after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on Sunday in Taiwan! Incredibly, nobody was hurt. Four people trapped in a collapsed building have also been rescued safely. We've had more than 50 quakes since a 6.4 quake in Taiwan Saturday. pic.twitter.com/AmLfuxMqYi
— Will Ripley (@willripleyCNN) September 18, 2022
Prior to his stint in Hong Kong, he was CNN's correspondent in Tokyo. Ripley has over 20 years of experience in journalism and, since joining the news agency in 2014, he has traveled to North Korea 19 times.
The Taipei office brings CNN's bureaus in Asia to eight, including offices in Beijing, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Islamabad, New Delhi, Seoul, and Tokyo.
CNN's establishment of an editorial operation in Taiwan follows a trend of other international news agencies setting up bureaus in the country spurred by expulsions of journalists from Beijing, the National Security Law in Hong Kong, China's zero-COVID policy, and Taiwan's strategic importance amid political, military, and trade tensions between China and the West. Since 2020, 29 foreign media outlets and 63 reporters have moved to Taiwan, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
Presently, 75 news outlets from 20 countries have dispatched 137 reporters to Taiwan. Beyond traditional media such as newspapers, television, radio, and magazines, the number of online media agencies has also increased, stated MOFA.