Civic organizations and bipartisan lawmakers yesterday urged the government to establish a victim support and reporting mechanism, strengthen cross-border threat detection and coordination capabilities, and promote national cybersecurity and protective education to raise public awareness of cross-border suppression.
The call was issued at a news conference hosted by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) and the Anti-Cross-Border Suppression Advocacy Action Team, and attended by Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) cochair and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Chen Gau-tzu (陳昭姿).
Representatives of the victims, including Kuan Chian-jhong (管建中), a representative from the company responsible for the distribution of State Organs (國有器官) in Taiwan, were also invited to attend the news conference.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
State Organs is a documentary released in October last year that exposes how Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities.
Chen Kuan-ting said there have been many cases where individuals who fled China due to persecution continue to be harassed by Chinese national security agencies after seeking refuge overseas.
This year, China has also issued harassment messages targeting Taiwanese officials and legislators, he said, adding that these threats have evolved beyond intimidating messages and bomb threats to include “identity theft,” where low-threshold communications channels are used to impersonate third parties and collect personal information.
This creates confusion for police investigations, effectively using minimal resources to generate maximum fear, forcing citizens into “self-censorship,” he said.
In a joint statement issued at the G7 summit in June, cross-border suppression was recognized as a “global security issue,” he added.
With the international community working to contain and prevent cross-border suppression, he said the purpose of the news conference was to encourage all sectors to address the issue and seek solutions.
He urged administrative agencies to establish clear reporting and assistance mechanisms, so that victims know where to seek help. Additionally, necessary legal tools should be considered to protect Taiwan’s civil society, he said.
Chen Gau-tzu said that domestically, political parties might have differing policies and platforms, but externally everyone shares a unified stance: to safeguard Taiwan’s democracy, freedom and security.
The TPP has a very clear position, which is that the Chinese Communist Party has no right to infringe upon Taiwanese.
Kuan said that on July 15 last year, he officially introduced State Organs to Taiwan.
Over the course of 16 months, more than 840 screenings were held and more than 150 threatening letters were received, he said, adding that the threats included placing bombs in the Presidential Office, the legislature and cinemas, slashing moviegoers and warning movie theaters not to cooperate with Lion Rock Films.
Kuan said that he chose not to remain silent because silence would mean paying a much greater price in the future.
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