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Taiwan
ChinaPolitics

Taiwanese activist faces ‘secession’ charges in mainland China, in a first for cross-strait ties

  • Yang Chih-yuan, 33, has been formally arrested after being detained in Wenzhou last year, according to Supreme People’s Procuratorate in Beijing
  • Taiwan’s top cross-strait policy planner calls for his swift release, saying ‘random arrests’ sparking alarm on the island

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Yang Chih-yuan was arrested by state security police in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province last August. Photo: CCTV
Amber Wangin BeijingandLawrence Chungin Taipei
Taiwanese activist Yang Chih-yuan, who was detained in mainland China eight months ago, will face “secession” charges, Beijing has announced.
The case marks the first time that a person from Taiwan will face charges of separatism in a mainland court, and comes at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions around the self-ruled island.

Yang has been officially arrested and transferred to the public prosecutors’ office in Wenzhou for further action, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in Beijing announced on Tuesday. No date for the prosecution was given.

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Taiwan’s top cross-strait policy planner, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), called for his swift release. It said repeated requests for his safe return had been ignored since he was held in August, and that such “random arrests” had sparked alarm on the island.

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Yang, 33, was detained in Wenzhou, in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, shortly after then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan and Beijing announced its intention to crack down on “Taiwanese separatists”.

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