Mainland police offer cash rewards for tips on Taiwan’s ‘terrible’ influencers

Mainland Chinese police are offering a cash reward for tips on possible crime-related behaviour by two Taiwanese online influencers, saying their separatist activities were having a “terrible influence”.

The Quanzhou police department in Fujian province, on the southeastern Chinese coast, said on Thursday that Wen Ziyu and Chen Boyuan were first identified by the Taiwan Affairs Office in March as henchmen and accomplices for the island’s independence.

“According to investigations, these two have long been publishing and spreading separatist remarks, smearing the mainland’s policies benefiting Taiwanese compatriots,” the police statement said.

Wen and Chen had “bullied and persecuted mainland spouses in Taiwan and served as internet trolls for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and anti-China forces in the US and other Western countries,” it added.

The police asked Taiwanese people to recognise the “extreme danger and harm of ‘Taiwan independence’ and actively provide any tips for possible illegal activities”. A cash reward of 50,000 to 250,000 yuan (US$6,700 to $35,000) was also offered.

The mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua hailed the decision, commenting immediately after the announcement that the measure was “justified and necessary”.

  

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