City Councils in Taiwan Urge Government to Confront Chinas Transnational Repression

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Several city and county councils across Taiwan have recently passed motions urging the central government to advance legislation to counter China’s transnational repression.The city council in central Taiwan’s Taichung became the latest to do so, passing a motion on Aug. 10. It followed similar moves by the councils of Taipei and Kaohsiung, as well as Yunlin County.Several Taichung city councilors told The Epoch Times and its sister media NTD that it was important for Taiwan to establish a legal framework to address the pressing challenge posed by China.Lee Tien-sheng, a city councilor from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan, should pass legislation as soon as possible to “protect the safety” of Taiwanese citizens.Huang Shou-da, a DPP city councilor, said the hope is to “establish appropriate measures through legislation to prevent foreign forces from reaching their hands into Taiwan.”Huang pointed out that shortly after Beijing rolled out its so-called ethnic unity law, Japanese journalist Akio Yaita, a prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was assaulted in Taichung by a Chinese attacker from Hong Kong. According to Huang, this means that Beijing will not stop using various forms of transnational repression to silence voices that support democracy.China’s ethnic unity law, which went into effect on July 1, provides a legal basis for advancing a Beijing-defined “shared” national identity and bans acts that “undermine ethnic unity” or “incite ethnic divisions.” Of particular concern internationally is Article 63, which gives Beijing the authority to extend enforcement beyond China’s borders.The Chinese man who allegedly assaulted Yaita at a local hotel on July 6, was arrested at the Taichung International Airport before boarding a flight to South Korea.Liu Shih-chou, a city councilor from Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT), said Beijing’s new law violates the laws of other countries and expressed concern that it seeks to bring people around the world under its control.Taichung city councilor Huang Shou-da. Huang Yu-yan/The Epoch Times“Allowing such malign influence to extend into Taiwan’s democratic and free system is unacceptable. I believe that none of the 23 million people in Taiwan would ever tolerate or consent to this,” Liu said.The motion passed on Aug. 10 also called on the Taichung city government to take proactive measures to ensure that screenings of the Canadian documentary “State Organs” can be held safely.“State Organs: Unmasking Transplant Abuse in China” tracks the heart-wrenching journey of two families over more than 20 years as they search for their loved ones who went missing under mysterious circumstances in China in the early 2000s. Along with their search, the families uncover the horror of a regime-run organ harvesting operation targeting innocent people.Taichung city councilor Liu Shih-chou. Huang Yu-yan/The Epoch TimesScreenings of the documentary have been held in countries around the world since its release in 2024. However, the film’s exposure of the CCP’s illicit organ trade has triggered pushback from Chinese operatives attempting to silence it. According to the documentary’s website, Beijing has “pressured multiple foreign governments to cancel the screenings and sent more than 150 malicious hoax bomb threats intended to disrupt the events.”In Taiwan, threats against screenings of the documentary were addressed during a legislative hearing in November 2024. The National Security Bureau told legislators that the Ministry of Culture, the Kaohsiung City Council, and several local cinemas had received hoax bomb threats by email. According to the bureau, an analysis of the IP addresses indicated that the senders had likely used virtual private networks (VPNs) to send the threats.“It is a milestone,” Chou Yung-hong, a DPP city councilor, said about the motion.Chou expressed hope that the motion would help put an end to China’s practice of forced organ harvesting, which he described as a crime against humanity and genocide.In 2019, a London-based independent people’s tribunal, known as the China Tribunal, concluded that it was “beyond reasonable doubt” that China has been forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience for many years, with the primary victims being Falun Gong practitioners.Taichung city councilor Wu Pei-yun. Huang Yu-yan/The Epoch TimesWu Pei-yun, an independent city councilor, said it was encouraging to see the motion receive support from councilors across party lines.“The documentary State Organs addresses far more than human rights. It is also about what we will have to confront in the future, including the political implications and how we view the future development of the security of all the people of Taiwan,” Wu said.Huang Yu-yan contributed to this report.