After Being Placed on Mainland Police Wanted List, Taiwanese Internet Celebrity Threatened with Beheading by Netizens

After Taiwanese internet celebrities Wen Ziyu (online name "Ba Jiong") and Chen Boyuan (online name "Minnan Wolf") were placed on a wanted list and clues about their alleged crimes of splitting the country were sought with rewards by Fujian police, some netizens, under the banner of "Beheading Operation Office," called online for people to harm Chen Boyuan at Xianghe Street in Taichung City and promised a reward of 1 million New Taiwan Dollars (about 132,000 ringgit) for anyone who succeeded. Chen Boyuan filed a police report about this matter, and the police are investigating the real identity of the relevant netizens.

Some netizens set up an account named "Beheading Operation Office" on the social platform "Threads." The account's profile stated "Determined to behead Lai Ching-te, capture Tsai Ing-wen alive," and mentioned, "I am organizing a beheading operation against Minnan Wolf in Taichung; whoever succeeds in the action will be given 1 million NTD cash immediately," soliciting volunteers to participate in the beheading operation.

On the 13th, Chen Boyuan posted about the above account on his social platform, and questioned: "Excuse me, does this count as a crime?" On the 14th, he posted again saying that he had arrived at Xianghe Street, "Where are the people who want to behead me?"

On the 14th, Chen Boyuan went to a Taichung police station to file a report. He said, "Taiwan police won't arrest me. Netizens from mainland China must be frustrated. After all, they believe Taiwan is a part of China. I came to the police station today to turn myself in, but the police won't arrest me. There's nothing I can do."

On the 14th, Taichung City Criminal Investigation Brigade responded, "The account in question was registered using an overseas phone number. The relevant posts have been active since July 25th this year, and the posts target cross-strait relations or leave comments on posts unfavorable to China. Therefore, we judge that the account likely belongs to someone from China."

Since June, Beijing has exercised cross-border judicial jurisdiction over individual "Taiwan independence" figures or agencies in Taiwan through local public security bureaus on at least four occasions. On October 28, the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau announced that DPP legislator Shen Boyang engaged in acts of criminal separatism by establishing the "Black Bear Academy," a Taiwan independence organization, and decided to hold him criminally accountable.

Subsequently, on Thursday (November 13), the Public Security Bureau of Quanzhou, Fujian Province, issued a wanted notice for Wen Ziyu and Chen Boyuan, with rewards up to 250,000 RMB (about 145,600 ringgit).

Regarding these developments, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an said on the 14th that the government's responsibility is to ensure people's safety, and that whenever any Taiwanese encounter such issues, the government should intervene and show concern at the earliest opportunity.