The well-worn rhetoric from Beijing against Taiwan is becoming all too real.
The democratically run island is accustomed to China’s assertions. Even the ships and aircraft that test its defenses are now frequently provoked. However, Taiwanese living and working in China as well as those back home are becoming uneasy about the current efforts to make support for it illegal.
A Taiwanese entrepreneur based in China declared, “I am currently planning to speed up my departure.” This was shortly after the Supreme Court made revisions that allowed life imprisonment and even the death penalty for people found guilty of lobbying for Taiwanese independence.
“I don’t believe that constitutes a mountain.”
According to Prof. Chen Yu-Jie, a legal expert from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, “the line is now very unclear.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office promptly reassured the 23 million Taiwanese citizens that this is not directed at them, but rather at a “very small number of hard-line independence activists.” According to the office, “the vast majority of Taiwanese compatriots have nothing to fear.”
Wary Taiwanese, however, say they have no desire to verify that claim. In an interview with the news, a number of Taiwanese individuals who reside and work in China said they were planning to leave or had already done so. Few wanted to be named, and none were willing to participate in a recorded interview.
“You run the risk of being reported and having whatever statements you make now misconstrued. Even prior to this
