Voice Of America
Date: December 06, 2020
By: Joyce Huang

Beijing has confirmed that it is drafting a list of pro-independence advocates in Taiwan, a move that some observers say reveals the Chinese government’s intention to criminalize what it calls “Taiwan secessionists” after an anti-secession example had been set recently in Hong Kong.

Some observers argue such a blacklist, however, will be toothless unless China finds ways to exercise long-distance influence over the self-ruled island.

And it could backfire and fuel the island’s anti-China sentiment, which is already at an all-time high, they add.

A laughingstock?

“The list will be a laughingstock [to Taiwan] unless harsh economic sanctions, be it travel bans, asset freezes or even [authorized] assassinations, would be imposed to show [China’s] claws,” Chang Ching, a researcher at the Society for Strategic Studies in Taipei, told VOA this week.
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