China: Dubious Criminal Investigation of Taiwanese Legislator

Click to expand Image Puma Shen, co-founder of Kuma Academy, during a media event of Kuma Academy in Taipei, Taiwan, June 2, 2023. © 2023 AP/Chiang Ying-ying who was living in China, to nine years in prison for his previous political activities in Taiwan. Yang’s was the first known case in which Chinese authorities have charged a Taiwanese national with “separatism,” under article 103 of China’s Criminal Law. In February, a Chinese court secretly sentenced the Taiwan publisher Li Yanhe (李延賀), known by his pen name Fu Cha (富察), to three years in prison on charges of “inciting secession,” for publishing books in Taiwan. Li had gone to China for a visit. These prosecutions appear to be part of a Chinese government strategy to extend its legal system beyond China’s borders to advance the foreign policy interests of the Chinese Communist Party, Human Rights Watch said. In 2019, the Party vowed to “accelerate the construction of legal systems on the extraterritorial application of Chinese law.”“Rights-respecting governments should speak out on behalf of freedoms of expression and association in Taiwan that Beijing is increasingly threatening,” Wang said. “French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders planning to visit Beijing should use the opportunity to publicly express concerns about Chinese government harassment of Puma Shen and other people in Taiwan.”.