The Chinese Communist Party announced the debut of an online program on Wednesday for Chinese citizens to denounce individuals who recognize the existence of Taiwan as a country, claiming that these individuals are “henchmen” of the democratically elected Taiwanese government “persecuting compatriots” on the island.
The establishment of the the new “platform” for condemning Taiwan supporters follows the eruption of a controversy in Taiwan concerning Chinese citizens using social media to advocate for a violent invasion of Taiwan while living there. Taipei’s immigration authorities identified three women – Liu Zhenya, Xiao Wei, and En Qi – as disseminators of “war propaganda” and revoked their visas and residency permits, giving them end-of-month deadlines to leave the country.
Liu Zhenya is a famous “influencer” on Douyin, the domestic Chinese version of Tiktok, going by the name of “Yaya in Taiwan” and boasting half a million followers. Her case has been the most closely followed as a result of her social media ubiquity and her decision to hold press conferences condemning the Taiwanese government and insisting she would fight the deportation. Liu has insisted that, while she supports Chinese colonization of Taiwan, she does so only “peacefully,” referring to it by the communist term “reunification.”
Taiwanese news outlets reported on Wednesday that Liu had gotten on a flight to Fuzhou, China. It is unclear at press time if her Taiwanese husband and three children joined her.
Xiao Wei, who is also reportedly married to a Taiwanese man, has claimed that she does not actually support “reunification” or the Chinese government in any way and made propaganda videos as an attempt to make money selling dubious products on social media.
The Chinese state propaganda outlet Global Times reported on Wednesday that the website to identify and target Taiwan supporters was a project of Beijing’s “Taiwan Affairs Office of State Council.”
“The platform is set up as a floating window on the homepage of the office’s official website … providing a platform for those who have been oppressed or persecuted, or those who have relevant information, to seek help,” it claimed.
A spokesman for the relevant Communist Party office identified as Chen Binhua told reporters that the Taiwanese government, which China does not recognize as legitimate, had “been fabricating charges to suppress dissenting voices in Taiwan, silencing free speech, and using threats and persecution against political opponents.”
“We express serious concern over this and believe that those responsible must be severely punished,” Chen warned.
Chinese influencer ‘YAYA’ (Liu Zhenya) with a white hat and members of a NGO assisting her case hold a press conference, as she complies with Taiwan’s legal order to leave Taiwan after her residency was revoked for posting videos advocating ‘One China’ and ‘Unification with China by force’, at Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 25, 2025. (Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Chen accused Taiwanese authorities of “green terror,” which he described as attempts to “obstruct and sabotage the efforts of cross-Straits compatriots [sic] to come closer and build connections.”
The Global Times quoted a Chinese regime-friendly professor, Zheng Jian, claiming that streamlining methods for the public to identify enemies of communism was necessary due to the “arrogance of secessionist figures,” meaning the legitimate Taiwanese government.”
“If such incidents are not met with targeted actions, they will only become more arrogant in the future,” Zheng predicted.
The Taipei Times reported on Thursday that the Chinese government had since updated that it had received hundreds of complaints regarding individuals in Taiwan, including anti-communist influencers on social media and lawmakers and other politicians, identified as “thugs, accomplices and persecutors.” Among those listed were Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan and Youtube personality Pa Chiung, who had reportedly denounced “Yaya in Taiwan” to the Taiwanese government and crashed Liu’s press conference on Tuesday where she claimed she would fight her deportation, causing a chaotic scene. Over 100 people showed up to protest in favor of Liu’s deportation in addition to the influencers in question.
It is unclear at press time what consequences being on China’s latest pro-Taiwan blacklist carries. Those named have responded with defiance, many of them describing themselves as honored to be distinguished by their support for Taiwan. The Chinese government said it would “hold responsible” those identified, without elaborating.
Taiwan is a sovereign, democratic island nation off the coast of China. The island has an entirely independent state apparatus – including a military, executive, judiciary, and legal system – and has never in its history been governed by a state headquartered in Beijing. Despite this, the Chinese Communist Party claims that Taiwan is a “province” of China and that its government is a “secessionist” rogue entity other countries should disregard and Beijing should fully suppress.
Taiwanese nationals enjoy significantly more protections for their free speech rights than Chinese citizens. The Communist Party, contrary to its complaints about the recent online cases in Taiwan, is notorious for silencing – through arrests, torture, and killing – political dissidents, believers of nearly every major world religion, and individuals simply considered inconvenient to the regime. The Chinese government is believed to be imprisoning thousands of political dissidents and torturing them, forcing them to sign inauthentic confessions to “crimes,” and committing other atrocities. Dissidents who have survived Chinese repression have testified to being disappeared into a kafkaesque legal system with no due process or competent legal representation and being forced into humiliating apologies for crimes they did not commit.
The individuals involved in the “Yaya in Taiwan” scandal are not facing any criminal charges, nor have they been arrested. Due to their alleged support for China to violently colonize Taiwan, however, the government has decided to revoke their permissions to live in the country.
