Taiwan prosecutors indict 5 suspects in alleged paid plot to injure anti-CCP comedian

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted five people for allegedly trying to injure a comedian who mocks the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping as part of his act.

The five suspects in Taiwan are accused of accepting NT$450,000 ($13,900) from some Chinese people to “break arms and legs” of comedian Huang Yihao’s, Taiwan’s national news agency CNA reported Wednesday. The charges of attempted aggravated assault were filed by the New Taipei District prosecutors office.

Huang said in an interview with CNA that he had parked his scooter in an alley last month when a car suddenly swerved toward him, striking both his scooter and himself. He escaped severe injury, but said his initial thought was “could this be the CCP coming after me?” Then, he said, the people in the car got out and apologized, and invited him to sit in their vehicle, which he turned down.

Before this supposed accident, one person installed a tracking device in Huang's car and monitored his life in July and August, according to CNA. And charges of intimidation endangering public safety and property damage have been filed against two other people who allegedly spread paint and human feces in May outside a comedy club in Taipei where Huang performed, according to local media reports.

China claims Taiwan, an island about 160 kilometers (100 miles) off its east coast, as its territory. The two split during the civil war that brought the Communists to power in China in 1949, with the losing Nationalists setting up their own government in Taiwan.

In one video clip that Huang shared on his YouTube channel, he compares Xi to Winnie the Pooh and criticizes the CCP for imposing Hong Kong's national security law and COVID-19 lockdowns across China.

“If people are already being treated this way for criticizing the CCP even before it has come to rule Taiwan, how can we possibly expect to retain our current freedom of speech should the CCP ever gain control over Taiwan?” Huang said in a post on Wednesday on his Facebook page, commenting on the case.

Fu Kun-chi, convener of the Kuomintang (KMT) legislative caucus, said no individual should ever be subjected to violent threats on account of their speech, regardless of their politics, according to CNA.