BEIJING — China on Wednesday dismissed Taiwan's accusations over an alleged plot to attack a Taiwanese comedian as a fabrication, in Beijing's first official response since prosecutors in Taiwan indicted five people over the case, Reuters reported on October 28.
Taiwan, the democratically governed island that China claims as its own territory, has accused Beijing of using 'transnational repression' against people in Taiwan it views as separatists or politically suspect, Reuters said. 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, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua dismissed the accusations as a fabrication by Taiwan's 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," Chen said, referring to next month's local elections in Taiwan. He called it a 'tired routine' and accused the DPP of stirring anti-China sentiment and provoking cross-strait confrontation to win political power, Reuters reported.
What prosecutors in Taiwan allege
Prosecutors in New Taipei indicted five people on October 21 for plotting to run over Huang with a car, Reuters reported at the time. According to the indictment, a Chinese individual identified only as 'K' offered NT$450,000 (about US$14,000) to have Huang's arms and legs broken so he could not perform, with NT$250,000 allegedly paid up front. The defendants are alleged to have tracked Huang from July to August — fitting a GPS device to his scooter and gathering his home address, licence plate and daily routine — before staging a collision in New Taipei's Yonghe District on September 11. Huang was hit at about 4:54 p.m. and suffered a contusion to his right pelvis; he was only lightly injured in the end, prosecutors said. The indictment did not provide the defendants' full names.
"This case involves a serious incident in which China is allegedly using cross-border repression to direct lawbreakers in Taiwan to suppress voices with opposing political views through extreme violence," prosecutors said in their October 21 statement, as reported by Reuters. The allegation remains an allegation: China denies involvement, and the case is now before the courts in Taiwan.
Source: Reuters, Oct 21, 2026 - Taiwan indicts 5 for attack on comedian who satirized China's Xi
Huang said he had only mentioned Xi very briefly in his act. "If people are already treated this way for criticising the Chinese Communist Party before it rules Taiwan, how can we expect to keep our current freedom of speech if the Communist Party ever does rule Taiwan?" he said, according to Reuters. In May, two people were prosecuted after spreading faeces and paint at a Taipei club hours before a scheduled Huang performance.
Source: Reuters, Oct 21, 2026 - Taiwan indicts 5 for attack on comedian who satirized China's Xi
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said on October 6 that it had recorded at least 140 cases of alleged Chinese transnational repression and identified at least 126 people as targets, and that Taiwan planned to amend its Anti-infiltration Act to criminalise such activity. Governments in Canada, the United States and Europe have also raised cases of alleged cross-border pressure on critics of Beijing in recent years — a pattern Beijing consistently denies. With Taiwan's local elections due next month, both sides are framing the comedian case through that wider dispute.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office had not responded when the indictment was announced on October 21, Reuters noted at the time. Wednesday's dismissal closes that silence, but it does not settle the underlying case, which will be decided by the proceedings against the five defendants in Taiwan.
Source: Reuters, Oct 21, 2026 - Taiwan indicts 5 for attack on comedian who satirized China's Xi