BOLSTERING THE SYSTEM: The Ministry of Justice said it was working with agencies on proposals that define transnational repression crimes and impose heavy penalties
- By Chen Yu-fu and Fion Khan / Staff reporter, with staff writer
A total of 131 Taiwanese have been targeted a combined 149 times through Chinese transnational repression since 2005, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a legislative session yesterday.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has employed nine forms of transnational repression against Taiwan: physical attacks, criminal prosecution, psychological coercion, digital oppression, border controls, collective punishment, economic sanctions, interference with democratic institutions and the abuse of institutional mechanisms, Liang said at a meeting of the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
Physical attacks include assaults, paint-splattering attacks and staged traffic accidents, while criminal prosecution involves the issuance of bounty-backed wanted notices, unlawful arrests and judicial trials, he said.
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh, left, speaks as Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien looks on at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Psychological coercion ranges from labeling targets as “die-hard Taiwanese independence supporters” to monitoring and stalking them, he added.
Digital oppression includes circulating satellite images of targets’ homes and spreading disinformation, while border controls involve barring targets and their family members from entering or leaving a territory, Liang said.
Collective punishment involves threatening or harassing victims’ families, friends or business partners, while economic sanctions take the form of restricting whom targets can do business with or freezing bank accounts, he said.
Interference in democracy involves attempts to threaten civil servants to disrupt the normal operation of state institutions, while the abuse of institutional mechanisms entails misusing judicial procedures, blocking international participation and using international organizations to restrict personal freedom, he added.
The CCP targets politicians, defense and military personnel, judicial officials, academics and civil society figures, Liang said.
Cases involving Japanese political commentator Akio Yaita and Taiwanese comedian Huang Yi-hao (黃逸豪) illustrated suspected CCP-linked physical violence, he said, calling for a comprehensive response to China’s escalating tactics.
By conducting transnational repression against Taiwanese under the guise of “punishing Taiwanese independence supporters,” while claiming that such actions comply with Chinese law, Beijing is seeking to fabricate a legal basis for exercising jurisdiction over Taiwan, Liang said.
Existing laws are insufficient to cover the tactics used in transnational repression, Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) said at the meeting.
Taiwan lacks a specific law penalizing people for reporting Taiwanese through China’s online portal for alleged Taiwanese independence activities, he said.
Following someone for political reasons cannot be prosecuted under the Stalking and Harassment Prevention Act (跟蹤騷擾防制法), which specifically applies to gender-related incidents, Cheng said.
Meanwhile, the statutory penalties for certain crimes only account for the harm done to the individual without reflecting the broader threat that intimidation poses to democracy, freedom and the rule of law, the Ministry of Justice said.
For example, causing ordinary bodily injury carries a maximum sentence of five years under the Criminal Code, while property damage and criminal threats each carry maximums of two years and unlawful surveillance or recording carry a maximum of three years, it said.
The ministry is working with other agencies to draft amendments to the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) to address those issues, Cheng said.
The proposed amendments would define crimes of transnational repression and impose heavy penalties, he said, adding that the revisions would also cover different methods of repression and establish measures addressing online dissemination and the confiscation connected to such offenses.