China dismisses Taiwan's accusations of involvement in comedian attack

Taiwan ​is "provoking confrontation" and stirring anti-China sentiment, a Chinese government ​spokesperson said on Wednesday, after Taiwanese prosecutors ‌indicted five ​people for plotting to attack a Taiwanese comedian whose shows mocked Beijing.

Taiwan, the democratically governed island that China claims as its own territory, has accused ‌Beijing of trying to use "transnational repression" against people in Taiwan the Chinese government views as separatists or politically suspect. Taiwan's government says China was behind last month's attack on comedian Huang Yi-hao, who satirised Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Speaking at ‌a regular news conference in Beijing and asked about the incident, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua dismissed Taiwan's ‌accusations as a fabrication by its ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). "The so-called transnational repression narrative is essentially a way of promoting Taiwan independence and peddling a two-state theory, and it is trotted out every time there is an election on the island," he said, referring ⁠to next ​month's local elections in Taiwan.

"The ⁠DPP fabricates all kinds of pretexts out of thin air, maliciously smears the mainland, stirs up anti-China sentiment, and provokes cross-strait confrontation, all ⁠in an attempt to win political power by misleading the Taiwanese public," Chen said. This is a "tired routine" repeated year after year, ​he added.

Taiwan prosecutors said the defendants, whose full names it has not provided, were paid to fake ⁠a car accident and "break the arms and legs" of Huang so he could not perform, though in the end he was only lightly ⁠injured. Taiwan ​President Lai Ching-te, speaking at a weekly DPP meeting later on Wednesday, said "transnational repression" was a tool China could use to erode public trust in the island's democratic system.

"China's aims in interfering in Taiwan's elections ⁠include not only attempting to directly change voting results, but also spreading false information, intensifying social divisions, and inciting group hatred," ⁠he said. Other China critics ⁠in Taiwan have also been attacked, including Hong Kong singer and activist Denise Ho in 2019.

Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the Taiwanese people can ‌decide their future.