China yesterday issued wanted notices for two Taiwanese influencers, accusing them of committing “separatist acts” by criticizing Beijing, amid broadening concerns over China’s state-directed transnational repression.
The Quanzhou Public Security Bureau in a notice posted online said police are offering a reward of up to 25,000 yuan (US$3,523) for information that could contribute to the investigation or apprehension of pro-Taiwanese independence YouTuber Wen Tzu-yu (溫子渝),who is known as Pa Chiung (八炯) online, and rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源).
Wen and Chen are suspected of spreading content that supported secession from China, slandered Chinese policies that benefit Taiwanese and discrimination against Chinese spouses of Taiwanese nationals, the bureau said.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The two celebrities are “hitmen and accomplices of Taiwanese independence who exercise a malign influence,” it added.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) later that day called the two “malcontents... who must be severely punished to achieve the nation’s unification and rejuvenation.”
Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference that no democratic nation would suffer the affront of China’s barbarism, which pose a direct threat to Taiwanese freedom and human rights.
The government is able and willing to protect the safety of all Taiwanese, she said, adding that Taiwan works closely with other nations to head off Beijing’s illegitimate efforts to undermine the rules-based international order.
The legislature and opposition parties are urged to defend the dignity of the Legislative Yuan from Chinese meddling, Lee said, referring to Beijing’s threatened legal action against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋).
A majority of the 60 nations that have extradition treaties with China do not extradite people accused of political crimes, Mainland Affairs Council Legal Affairs Department Deputy Head Tung Yu-yun (董玉芸) told reporters.
The UN’s “double criminality” principle stipulates that a nation may not extradite anyone unless they committed an act that is deemed a crime in both jurisdictions, she said.
This means the risk of a democratic nation extraditing Taiwanese to China is minimal, Tung said.
Taiwanese who volunteer information or otherwise aid China in its attempts to deprive the rights and freedoms of their fellow Taiwanese could face criminal prosecution in Taiwan, she said.
Tunghai University professor of China studies Hung Pu-chao (洪浦釗) said Beijing has no legal or actual jurisdiction in Taiwan and that the notices are little more than tools of psychological and legal warfare.
“By making a show of issuing wanted notices, Beijing is testing the resolve of the Taiwanese government and society to see if fear can be utilized to manipulate the nation’s civil discourse,” he said.
The government should make it clear that Taiwan does not recognize Chinese law or wanted notices, Chinese police have no ability to hand out rewards in Taiwan and free speech will be protected against foreign meddling, he added.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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