Taiwanese prosecutors have charged five men over a plot to ram a car into a comedian who made fun of the Chinese Communist party and Xi Jinping.
Taiwan has repeatedly accused China of transnational repression to silence critics on the self-governed island, which Beijing claims as its territory and has vowed to take by force if necessary.
In one performance, Huang Yi-hao insulted the Chinese leader’s appearance, compared him to Winnie-the-Pooh and tore into his political record.
Prosecutors in New Taipei said on Wednesday that an individual from mainland China who was identified as “K” had paid the five defendants to injure Huang badly enough to require hospitalisation.
The prosecutors said: “This case involves a serious incident in which the Chinese Communist party is suspected of using cross-border suppression tactics to direct lawless elements in our country to suppress dissenting political voices through extreme violence.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to requests for comment.
A GPS tracker was allegedly put on Huang’s scooter months before the attack to identify his daily routines, Taiwan’s Central News Agency said. On 11 September, two defendants drove into Huang’s bike as he rode home, but stopped after hearing Huang scream, prosecutors said.
The comedian was left with a bruised pelvis and the suspects then allegedly pretended to help with an insurance claim in order to send a photo of Huang’s medical certificate to K.
K refused to pay the full sum of NT$450,000 (US$13,900; £10,370) promised to the suspects because Huang’s injuries were only minor, the statement said.
On Wednesday, Huang reposted a video from December 2025 in which he asked the audience to help him by shouting out the name of the person he was about to describe.
In a fast-paced diatribe, the comedian, dressed in a traditional gown, evoked “swept-back hair” and a “plump figure”, and criticised policies on Hong Kong, Covid and the property market. After finishing with an expletive, the crowd chanted back Xi’s name before breaking into applause.
In May, two people were prosecuted after spreading faeces and paint at a Taipei club hours before a Huang show.
Lev Nachman, a professor of political science at National Taiwan University, said: “It is important to remember that what we are reading about is obviously a more extreme case, but there have been threats and acts of violence against critics of the Communist party here in Taiwan for many years.”
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said in October that at least 126 individuals had been affected by Chinese transnational repression.
The Guardian has contacted the Chinese foreign ministry for comment.
In a post on Wednesday, Huang said: “If people can be subjected to this kind of treatment simply for criticising the Chinese Communist party when it does not even govern Taiwan, how can we expect to retain our current freedom of speech if the CCP were ever to rule Taiwan?”
In another post on Facebook, Huang said he would not cancel future performances but that he was “no hero”.
“I write it because it’s funny,” he said. “If I stop, it will only be because I’ve got bored of it.”
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