- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
- china@sopuli.xyz
- globalnews@lemmy.zip
- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
- china@sopuli.xyz
- globalnews@lemmy.zip
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60115513
Prosecutors on Sept. 29 indicted two men for allegedly throwing feces and paint at the Comedy Club in Taipei on May 29. A 33-year-old man surnamed Liu (劉), allegedly acting on instructions from an unidentified person in China, recruited a 35-year-old man surnamed Kuo (郭), who threw bags containing human feces and white paint inside and outside the club in Zhongshan District (中山), prosecutors said.
The incident happened on a night when comedian Huang Yi-hao (黃逸豪), who had mocked Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), was scheduled to perform.
Property was damaged, staff were frightened and some customers sought refunds, prosecutors said.
It was an act of Chinese “transnational repression” intended to restrict freedom of expression, they said, recommending that Liu be given a prison term of one year and 10 months, and Kuo one year and eight months.
[…]
It was not the first time people apparently acting on behalf of Beijing have been accused of trying to intimidate or silence critics in Taiwan. In 2017, Hong Kong democracy advocate Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) was targeted by pro-China protesters, including in an alleged attempted assault, upon his arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
In 2019, Hong Kong singer and democracy advocate Denise Ho (何韻詩) was splashed with red paint while speaking to reporters before a rally in Taipei to support the territory’s democratic movement.
Prosecutors identified the main suspect as a member of the China Unification Promotion Party.
Other Hong Kong rights workers have also faced harassment. In 2020, former Causeway Bay Books manager Lam Wing-kee (林榮基), who had fled to Taiwan, was splashed with paint at a Taipei cafe.
Security officials have said that attacks and vandalism targeting Hong Kongers and their businesses in Taiwan are suspected of being carried out under Chinese direction.
[…]
Economic pressure is another avenue of intimidation. This week, TV host Kevin Tsai (蔡康永) attended a campaign event in Taipei for Shen, who is the DPP’s mayoral candidate for the capital. After Chinese social media users called for a boycott, Chinese electric-vehicle maker Leapmotor removed promotional material featuring Tsai, while Harper’s Bazaar China took down its interview with him.
These incidents show the potential consequences for Taiwanese entertainers and businesses that operate in China when Beijing interprets their political activity as support for “Taiwanese independence.”
[…]
Political satire and making fun of politicians are generally lawful and strongly protected forms of expression.
Huang’s political satire of Xi and other politicians is protected by Taiwan’s constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression. Taiwanese must not be intimidated into self-censorship. If fear of Beijing causes people to silence themselves, Taiwan risks surrendering the freedoms that distinguish its democratic system from the Chinese regime while encouraging further attempts at transnational repression.
That is why prosecutors and courts must continue to hold accountable those who use threats, violence or other criminal acts to silence others. Defending free expression does not mean allowing intimidation to go unanswered; it means ensuring that intimidation never determines what Taiwanese are allowed to say.
Ultimately, Taiwanese — not Beijing — will decide what can be said in Taiwan. The nation’s democracy is strong when its people exercise the freedoms they fought hard for, rather than allowing fear of China to dictate the limits of their speech.
[…]
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What’s your point dude, Taiwan used to have censorship during their martial law period that ended 40 years ago in 1987. Now the people there enjoy freedom of speech, are you saying this is an example authoritarian China should follow or just a feeble attempt at whataboutism?
It’s called hypocrisy. Taiwan ALSO censors free speech today, blocking apps, blocking DeepSeek, preventing digital commerce, etc. Pretending that censorship ended after the fascists dropped martial law in 1987, or even after the first ever presidential election in 1996, is disingenuous.
Why would Taiwan, a country living under the threat of a Chinese takeover ban China’s main AI company DeepSeek?
I understand that it might take you a while to figure out the reason, the fact that you even used that example indicates that you are likely not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Pretending that the censorship in Taiwan is in the same league as authoritarian China is disingenuous in the extreme.
Sorry but Taiwan has never been a country. The UN has recognized Taiwan as a province of China for over 50 years and it was a province of China for a couple centuries before that. There was a brief period of Japanese occupation, but never has it ever been a separate country. The reason Taiwan would censor things from the CPC are the exact same reasons the CPC would censor things from Taiwan. They are literally congruent and the only reason to focus on the censorship of one side over the other is if you believe one side to be the “good guys” and one side to be the “bad guys” which means you’re not doing journalism or even promoting journalism, you’re just assuming your preconceived notions and then spreading propaganda to support your position, which is something Hotznplotz is very well known for in the fediverse.
UN recognition would be nice but that is never going to happen as long as China has a veto on that ever happening. More importantly Taiwan is de facto a country, they administer their own land, collect taxes, have their own army, passport etc. China throws a tantrum like a massive baby if anyone goes against their one China policy but the rest of the world knows what’s up.
There are no “good” guys and “bad” guys here, this is not a superhero movie. I am also not a journalist, why on earth would I be doing journalism? Your initial post was a bad attempt at propaganda, hilarious you accuse me of the same thing.
Censorship in both countries, as well as personal freedoms are not the same. I would happily move to and live in Taiwan, I would never live in China for that reason.
I sleep well at night knowing after Russia’s clusterfuck of an invasion of Ukraine, China would never be stupid enough to attempt the same in Taiwan.
China doesn’t have a veto on recognizing countries because it’s not a function of the Security Council. You really should read about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_2758_(XXVI)
More importantly Taiwan is de facto a country
I am very tired of this specious debate. No it’s not. There is no “facto” of being a country. There is only “jure”. Countries are fictions that are constructed socially by agreement, and the social agreements of the world are such that Taiwan is not a country. Hell, the social agreements of Taiwan itself throughout its entire history is that it is not a country. The only people who make the argument that Taiwan is “de facto” a country are anti-comnunists who believe it’s perfectly just to purge tens of thousands of political dissidents for 3 generations and then claim that public opinion is a valid and untainted method of determining correctness.
Your initial post was a bad attempt at propaganda, hilarious you accuse me of the same thing.
Oh. My. God. Are you actually that daft? Hotz posted an article. My original post, which was a comment, was a link to Wikipedia page and nothing else. Holy fucking shit. Journalism is what happens when a journalist writes an article describing something about the world. Propaganda is when that journalism commits hypocrisy via lies of ommission. Providing context for that hypocrisy, peer reviewed and sourced, is not a form of bad propaganda. It’s literally anti-propaganda.
Censorship in both countries, as well as personal freedoms are not the same. I would happily move to and live in Taiwan, I would never live in China for that reason.
No one gives a shit where you would choose to live. You don’t live in either of those places. Your entire basis for your supposed “preference” is narrative, not lived experience. Your preference is meaningless.
I sleep well at night knowing after Russia’s clusterfuck of an invasion of Ukraine, China would never be stupid enough to attempt the same in Taiwan.
I have been sleeping well at night for decades on this topic because China’s position on Taiwan has literally been the same for 50 fucking years - they will never invade Taiwan to force integration militarily. They will only invade Taiwan on two conditions that constitute a national security threat to China: 1) the advancement of foreign kill chains that leverage the province and 2) the political declaration of secession by the provincial government of Taiwan because that would trigger foreign powers to deploy their militaries at a scale which would threaten national security.
They have said this for literal decades. The policy has never changed. The preparations have never stopped. The vigilance against the US and UK military presence in the region has been unending. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has not changed China’s position at all.
China doesn’t have a veto on recognizing countries because it’s not a function of the Security Council
Don’t be so slippery buddy, China does not have the power to veto the recognition but it does have a veto on their application to start their recognition in the first place.
I am very tired of this specious debate. No it’s not. There is no “facto” of being a country. There is only “jure”.
Cool story bro, you keep believing that and Taiwan will just carry on being de facto a country.
facto" a country are anti-comnunists
Imagine in 2026 believing China is a communist country? Sure buddy, communist country with the fastest growing population of billionaires on earth!
purge tens of thousands of political dissidents for 3 generations
Come on China boy, don’t get me started on China and political dissidents, we will be here all day! Sure, the Uyghurs are just volunteering for re-education!
The original article was regarding China’s lame attempt at shutting down criticism by throwing paint and faeces. China really is the most thin skinned country on earth, if they had any confidence as a nation they wouldn’t feel the need to do this. You then lamely linked an article to Taiwan’s historic censorship in a lame attempt at whataboutism. Your Wikipedia article was absolutely unnecessary and irrelevant to the article, it would have looked weird to add that context to the story.
No one gives a shit where you would choose to live.
Yes they do, I have lots of family and friends that love me and care where I am. I lived in Hong Kong for a while back when it was cool and have family that had to flee when China came in and made it lame and authoritarian.
China’s position on Taiwan has literally been the same for 50 fucking years - they will never invade Taiwan to force integration militarily
Yea Russia also said they wouldn’t invade Ukraine, even signed agreements but here we are, authoritarian states do what they do. It is no secret that China has ambitions to reunite Taiwan with the mainland, they have multiple motives. If China had a clear way to take Taiwan they would simple as that. The Chinese leadership is fortunately more pragmatic than that fool Putin and the disastrous war in Ukraine has definitely frightened China off the idea of taking Taiwan militarily any time soon.
Disingenuous is what you and the other teenie tankies are doing here.