TAIPEI, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Taiwanese prosecutors indicted five people on Wednesday for plotting to run over with a car a comedian whose shows have poked fun at the Chinese government, including President Xi Jinping.
Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained that Beijing is trying to use “transnational repression” to go after people in Taiwan who the Chinese government views as separatists or are otherwise politically suspect.
In a statement, prosecutors in New Taipei said comedian Huang Yi-hao was hit and injured by a car last month after a Chinese individual, whom they only identified as “K,” paid another man to make sure Huang was seriously injured.
The defendants were paid to fake a car accident and “break the arms and legs” of Huang so he could not perform, but in the end he was only lightly injured, the statement said.
The statement did not provide the full names of those accused. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.
China’s government is not tolerant of criticism of its leadership.
Huang said in a statement on his Facebook page he had only mentioned Xi very briefly.
“If people are already treated this way for criticising the Chinese Communist Party before it rules Taiwan, how can we expect to keep our current freedom of speech if the Communist Party ever does rule Taiwan?” he added.
Freedom of speech is constitutionally protected in Taiwan.
Huang also shared a video of his performance on social media on Wednesday, during which he poked fun at Xi.
In May, two people were prosecuted after spreading faeces and paint at a club in Taipei hours before Huang’s scheduled performance.
“This case involves a serious incident in which China is allegedly using cross-border repression to direct lawbreakers in Taiwan to suppress voices with opposing political views through extreme violence,” prosecutors said.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a separate statement that anyone who accepts orders from China’s Communist Party or its collaborators to take part in transnational repression will be “pursued to the end, with no leniency.”
Other China critics in Taiwan have been attacked, including Hong Kong singer and activist Denise Ho. She was attacked in 2019 in Taipei by a masked man who threw red paint at her.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the Taiwanese people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
