The Fookien Times was established by Dee C. Chuan in February 1926, originally targeting Chinese migrants to the Philippines from Fujian.
In contrast to newspapers like the Chinese Commercial News, which Dee established earlier as a newspaper for the Chinese Filipino merchant class and the political issues in the Philippines concerning them, the founding of The Fookien Times was motivated by major events in mainland China rather than happenings in the Philippines.
[1] Dee founded the newspaper along with James Go Puan Seng (Chinese: 吳半生; pinyin: Wú Bànshēng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gô͘ Pòan-seng), a twenty-year old reporter and editor for the Kong Li Po (Chinese: 公理報; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kong Lí Pò) who was appointed the newspaper's editor and general manager.
This became even more apparent after the Second Sino-Japanese War, when he stepped up his criticism of Japan after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, so much so that General Douglas MacArthur warned him that he would be the first Chinese Filipino the Japanese would execute because of his writings.
Established in 1936 as the Fookien Times Yearbook,[2][3] it originally contained general "overview" articles on national issues written by prominent Filipinos,[6] as well as statistical data on the Philippines.