Taiwan probes organised crime links to China's 'transnational repression'

Taiwan is probing organised crime’s links to Chinese efforts to carry out “transnational repression”, a security official said on Thursday, after the island’s government said Beijing was behind an attack on a comedian who mocked President Xi Jinping, Reuters reported.

Speaking to reporters at parliament, National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen said the local networks that cooperate in incidents like the comedian attack are “mostly criminal gangs, or private investigation firms linked to organised crime”, the Straits Times reported.

“The National Security Bureau is more concerned with whether anyone behind them has been directed and funded by the Chinese Communist Party. How to dismantle the entire criminal group and network is a key focus for us,” Tsai said.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and has not responded to previous questions on the assault. Other China critics in Taiwan have also been attacked, including Hong Kong singer and activist Denise Ho, who was attacked in Taipei in 2019 by a masked man who threw red paint at her.

Tsai said Taiwan might need to amend its laws to better deal with China’s activities. “Comprehensively curbing the Chinese communists’ transnational repression in Taiwan’s democratic and rule-of-law society is also very important, and the legal framework for it has been lacking,” he said.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory over the island’s objections, says it faces a stepped-up pressure campaign by Beijing, including military and Coast Guard operations in the waters around the island on a daily basis.