The government of Taiwan confirmed this week it had ordered three Chinese women to leave the country – one by Tuesday, the other two by the end of March – on the grounds that they had used social media to spread violent Chinese propaganda.
Focus Taiwan, an agency affiliated with Singapore’s Channel News Asia, identified the three women as Liu Zhenya, Xiao Wei, and En Qi. Liu Zhenya, the most prominent of the three, is a well-known “influencer” on Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok, as “Yaya in Taiwan.” Liu was ordered to leave by Tuesday or be deported, an order she insisted she would disobey. Liu organized a press conference on Tuesday alongside her Taiwanese husband condemning the removal order that attracted anti-communist protesters demanding she leave.
Xiao Wei is also reportedly an influencer and appeared in videos on Chinese social media platforms waving the communist Chinese flag. Her husband, also Taiwanese, claimed in a Chinese-language interview that her appeals to communist China were simply meant to sell products to Chinese viewers and supplement their income, not as an earnest political statement.
The Taiwanese National Immigration Agency (NIA) claimed that the women were calling for China to “reunify” with Taiwan by force – in other words, supporting a military invasion of Taiwan – and that such language from foreigners does not enjoy free speech protections.
“After the administrative penalties were issued, we immediately notified the relevant authorities to revoke their permits,” Taiwanese Interior Minister Liu Shih-fang said on Monday, referring to the residency and work permits afforded to the women in question.
Following the initial announcement of the removal orders, the NIA issued a statement affirming that it was “fully invested in investigating the cases in question and the firm position of maintaining national security and social stability remains unchanged.” Any reports indicating that the Taiwanese government had not properly studied the cases before revoking the residency permits, it insisted, were “internet rumors.”
“The vast majority of new residents and allies all agree on the core values of democracy and freedom,” the NIA concluded.
Liu, known as “Yaya in Taiwan,” admitted in an interview on Monday that she supports a Chinese takeover of Taiwan, or “reunification,” but only peacefully, and claimed that her social media remarks on “unification through military force” were speculative and not supportive. She also insisted she would not leave the country, noting that she had a Taiwanese husband and three children in the country who would be severely negatively affected by being separated from their mother.
Focus Taiwan noted in its reporting that Liu appealed the removal but was rejected, accused of engaging in “war propaganda.”
Liu and her husband held a press conference on Tuesday morning local time in front of the Interior Ministry offices in Taipei resisting her removal from the country. The event attracted throngs – reportedly over 100 people – of anti-communist activists. Radio Taiwan International described the scene:
More than 100 protesters showed up in support of Liu’s deportation, with YouTube creator and anti-CCP activist Pa Chiung (八炯) and rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) spearheading the rally. Holding signs reading “If your motherland is so great, go back!” and “Freedom of expression is not calling for an invasion,” ralliers repeated the slogans “Go back” (滾回去) and “8964” in reference to the Tiananmen Square Massacre that happened on June 4, 1989.
Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai confirmed on Tuesday that Taipei was intent on deporting Liu.
“Any illegal actions that contravene national security would be strictly handled, with no room for compromise,” the Taipei Times reported Cho as saying. “There are limits on freedom of speech as it cannot compromise Taiwan’s integrity and continued survival, Cho said, citing legal experts.”
Cho cited limits on free speech by the Supreme Court in the United States as evidence that these restrictions can exist in free societies, the Taipei Times added, without specifying what Supreme Court jurisprudence he was referring to.
The NIA has reportedly offered Liu a “grace period” of ten days before deporting her.
The Taiwanese husband of Xiao Wei, one of the other women facing deportation, reportedly told the Taiwanese news outlet NowNews that images of her waving the Chinese flag in public on social media and calling for “reunification” were attempts to attract Chinese buyers for products she was shilling on social media, not political statements.
NowNews reported that her husband said the family had lost significant income after sales of lunch boxes declined and Xiao did not have an education beyond elementary school, so she turned to Chinese social media for profit. “Mr. Xiao,” as NowNews referred to the man, insisted she was merely “saying what they want to hear” in China as a “hook” to get them to spend money and offered as evidence that she did not refer to “reunification” on non-Chinese social media platforms such as Facebook.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Justice addressed free speech concerns on Monday, stating that it would take public comment on whether Taiwan should impose statutory criminal limitations on “advocating war.”
“Criminal cases are handled based on the offenses stated in the Criminal Code, such as incitement, intimidation and defamation,” the Ministry said in a statement. “As to whether there should be a specific law against advocacy of war, or whether a person would be deemed as committing a crime or should be subject to administrative penalty for making such statements, we have to carefully study this issue by listening to the public first.”
