Taiwan Alleges Transnational Repression After Attacks Target Critics of Beijing

TAIPEI, Taiwan — In September, Taiwanese comedian Huang Yi-hao was involved in a car accident of the kind that can happen to anyone. What stood out was the conduct of the men in the other vehicle: they were unusually courteous and even offered to pay his medical expenses and cover the damage to his car.

Huang later received a call from Taiwanese police informing him that it was not an ordinary accident.

Taipei prosecutors in October charged five men with deliberately attempting to injure Huang in a case that has drawn attention across Taiwan. Authorities say it is part of a growing pattern in which operatives paid by China harass or attack people on the self-ruled island who are seen as critical of the government in Beijing.

“At first it was verbal harassment, then it escalated to throwing paint and damaging property … and now to staging a fake car accident,” said Chiu Shao-Chou, commissioner of Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau. “The severity is increasing, and we have to take that seriously.”

Taiwan is a democratic island that Beijing claims and has not ruled out using force to annex. Taiwanese authorities have long worried about Chinese infiltration, including espionage targeting senior military officials and the president’s bodyguards, disinformation campaigns during elections, and the use of cultural exchanges to spread Communist Party ideology.

China’s tactics for harassing, surveilling or even harming dissidents abroad have drawn increasing scrutiny in recent years. In 2023, authorities in New York made arrests linked to secret police stations set up on behalf of the Chinese government to monitor Chinese dissidents.

Huang said the car attack may have been connected to a performance late last year in which he criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping and compared him to Winnie the Pooh. Huang is a comedian trained in the xiangsheng tradition, a form of Chinese comedic dialogue that relies heavily on wordplay and rhyme.

Prosecutors say the five men accepted about 450,000 New Taiwan dollars ($13,900) from someone in China using the alias “K,” who wanted them to injure Huang seriously enough that he could no longer perform.

Huang said he had stopped collaborating with other comedians and believes his criticism of Xi is the reason. He said he knows of other comedians whose performances were canceled in China and Taiwan because they had worked with him. He has no plans to take his shows to China.

His solo shows, however, have sold out since the attack.

“The Communist Party is very childish. Your country’s leader was criticized by a comedian, and as a result you give such an aggressive response?” Huang said.

Hong Kong gangsters have been accused of plotting to assault Japanese political commentator Akio Yaita in what Taiwanese prosecutors described as another instance of “transnational repression.”

According to an October statement from prosecutors, five Hong Kong triad members, paid by a fellow gangster, entered Taiwan in early July and inspected the area around the hotel where Yaita was expected to give a speech. Before the attack, two withdrew, and the pair, alongside another member, left Taiwan, the statement said.

One of the men was offered 100,000 Hong Kong dollars ($12,750) to assault Yaita, prosecutors said. He punched the commentator in the face and was later arrested, while another, who acted as a lookout, fled Taiwan.

Yaita, a former reporter in Beijing who now leads a think tank in Taiwan, believes the assault was linked to his remarks, including his criticism of Chinese government policies.

“By violently attacking me, they hope to silence others who criticize China, including myself,” he said, adding that he would not change his views.

The man who was arrested pleaded guilty on Tuesday and will be sentenced later, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.

Matt Brazil, a fellow at The Jamestown Foundation in Washington, D.C., said the recent attacks represented a “big step beyond” sending navy ships and warplanes around the island. He said anyone in Taiwan who speaks out against Xi and the Chinese Communist Party could be a target.

“(It) shows that Beijing may be turning toward a more militant stance in acting against its critics (in Taiwan). If successful, the party may expand such tactics elsewhere,” he said.

Taiwan’s police say the threat of transnational repression is not limited to Taiwan. They said they are coordinating closely with U.S. authorities on similar cases involving Taiwanese nationals overseas.

In October, U.S. authorities arrested a woman in Los Angeles for allegedly conducting surveillance on the son of Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te on behalf of the Chinese government.

“Taiwan is a democratic and pluralistic society, but with these types of actions which harm our national security, the investigation of this is of the highest importance,” Chiu, the police commissioner, said. He added that police treat the cases as national-level threats and coordinate with immigration authorities, the coast guard and other government agencies.

Catching the criminals before they leave Taiwan is a top priority, he said, adding that police would also investigate Taiwanese collaborators.

The island’s Mainland Affairs Council, which handles relations with China, said it would seek to strengthen the Anti-Infiltration Act, a law designed to punish such acts.

In response to the attack on Yaita, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in July that the Hong Kong man who punched Yaita had acted out of “righteous indignation” and that it was an ordinary public security incident.

China denied any involvement in the attack on Huang. The Taiwan Affairs Office said Wednesday that “transnational repression” was a lie by Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party. It said the party had created the Anti-Infiltration Act to suppress political dissidents and restrict cross-strait exchanges.

But for Huang, who now travels with a police escort to every performance, the intended message was clear.

“They want to tell everyone that there’s a cost to criticizing the Chinese government and its leader. They want to tell people, clearly, ‘If you do something abroad, we will come deal with you, so shut your mouth and accept reunification.’”

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