First, China sentences Taiwanese national to prison for separatism – The Diplomat

In early September, the Chinese government sentenced Taiwanese independence activist Yang Chih-yuan to nine years in prison. Yang is one of the co-founders of the relatively obscure Taiwan National Party and little known among Taiwanese independence organizations. But the case is notable because it is the first time a Taiwanese national has been convicted of separatism, after years of China warning against such charges against independence supporters.

Yang was a participant during the Wild Strawberry Movement of 2008 and the “Fury” protests of 2013, both against the actions of then-President Ma Ying-jeou, seen as bringing Taiwan uncomfortably closer to China. Similarly, Yang participated in the Taiwan Action Party Alliance, a pro-independence political party formed under the auspices of former President Chen Shui-bian and disbanded in 2020. However, reports also indicate that Yang was close to the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), a pro-unification political party with ties to the Bamboo Union gang, and that CUPP had attempted to recruit him as a political candidate.

Regardless of the quirks of his ties to the CUPP, his apparently pro-independence views do not appear to have deterred Yang from traveling to China in January 2022 for a Go tournament. Yang did not have a high public profile at the time of his trip to China , which perhaps explains why he was willing to go to China.

Yang disappeared in January. It was only learned that he had been detained by the Chinese government when he appeared on Chinese state media during his imprisonment in August 2022. As this was around the time of Nancy Pelosi’s visit , then Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Taiwan and the Chinese military. After the subsequent anti-Taiwan exercises, it was believed that the release of information about Yang’s whereabouts had been deliberately timed to intimidate Taiwan.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Yang’s family I hadn’t contacted tell them about his detention, which could be one of the reasons why his whereabouts were not revealed earlier. Family members of Taiwanese imprisoned in China for political reasons sometimes remain silent, fearing that public attention will prolong their loved ones’ prison sentences.

It was not until April 2023 – well over a year after Yang’s initial detention – that further details of the arrest were revealed. The Beijing daily reported that the Supreme People’s Procuratorate had approved Yang’s arrest, after an investigation by the National Security Bureau in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. Yang was detained under Home surveillance at a designated locationa form of detention in which Chinese authorities are not required to notify family members, and the government is not required to reveal where prisoners are being held. At the time, Yang was accused of crimes related to separatism, including being part of an “illegal organization” that sought Taiwanese independence and Taiwan’s membership in the United Nations.

However, it would be another year and a half before Yang was officially sentenced. The timing of Yang’s sentencing, after more than two and a half years of imprisonment by China, may also be deliberate.

Yang’s conviction comes amid other moves by the Chinese government aimed at taking a tougher line on supporters of Taiwanese independence. In June, Chinese courts announced legal guidelines this included the use of capital punishment for the “ringleaders” of Taiwanese independence separatists.

This would not be the first time that a form of death penalty has been proposed against supporters of Taiwanese independence. In 2023, during a session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, essayist and blogger Zhou Xiaoping proposed that China could draw up a “victim list” of supporters of Taiwanese independence who would be executed in a “special military operation”.

But while such proposals may be intended to strike fear into the hearts of the Taiwanese, it is more common for the Chinese government to sanction individuals it considers separatists. In the past, this led high-ranking Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians such as Su Tseng-chang, Joseph Wu, and Yu Shyi-kun, as well as media commentators such as Huang Shih-tsung, Lee Zheng-hao, Liu Bao-jie, Wang Yi-chuan and Yu Pei-chen to face sanctions preventing them and their family members from traveling to China or making business with Chinese entities.

Most recently, the Chinese Taiwan Affairs Office website deployed a new section listing ten “die-hard Taiwanese separatists”. In addition to some of the people mentioned above, these include Taiwanese Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, Defense Minister Wellington Koo, former Sunflower Movement student leader Lin Fei-fan and others. This section also includes an email address to submit information about these individuals.

This list highlighted politicians already known in Taiwan. However, new legal guidelines issued in June provide that those who “largely distort and falsify that Taiwan is part of China in the fields of education, culture, history and media” could be punished. . This could indicate that China could target media outlets, academics or commentators with punitive measures, rather than just politicians. After all, some of China’s sanctions previously targeted media commentators.

This highlights the significance of Yang’s conviction: the first Taiwanese national convicted by China for separatism was not a well-known figure, but a little-known individual. While Beijing may not have had access to other pro-independence Taiwanese – who knew better than to travel to China – it is also notable that some of those detained by China for political reasons in in previous years actually belonged to the pan-blue camp, as Tsai Chin-shu, pro-unification academic or academic and Shih-Cheng-ping, China Times columnist.

Yang’s conviction comes as national security charges are pending in Hong Kong against politicians, journalists and others. Yet Yang’s conviction, like the events in Hong Kong, has attracted relatively little attention in Taiwan in a news cycle still dominated by daily reports on corruption charges against Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je.

The Taiwan MAC has raised its alert level warning on the potential dangers of traveling to China after legal directives threatening the death penalty against Taiwanese independence supporters. A warning was also published when news of Yang’s arrest broke. The MAC also pointed out that politically moderate and pro-status quo views in Taiwan could potentially be perceived as pro-independence by Chinese authorities. It remains to be seen whether Yang’s conviction will lead to more arrests of Taiwanese in China.