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Will Deatherage: Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Barefoot Lawyer Reports on China. My name is Will Deatherage, the producer. Joining me as always is Chen Guangcheng.
Chen Guangcheng: Hello everyone, I’m glad to see you here.
W: Yeah, and today we have a story coming out of Taiwan, and it follows a similar trend we’ve seen in other countries. Guangcheng, can you describe what happened?
G: Yeah, today we will talk about this news. This is very important. We call it cross-border repression, or sometimes international pressure. The CCP continues to harass and persecute human rights activists in other countries. Yeah. So I have to introduce the person. Before, he lived in Tianjin City, you know, it’s a big city close to Beijing. And later he moved to Japan, and now he is a Japanese citizen and a Taiwanese citizen. And he has an organization: Indo-Pacific Strategy Think Tank. Yeah, so he always criticizes the CCP and talks about the CCP’s relations with other Asian governments.
So on July 6th, he just finished giving a speech at a hotel in Taipei City, Taiwan. After that, someone called him to the lobby, and when the bad guy made sure he is 矢板 明夫 (Akio Yaita), he attacked him in the face.
W: Wow.
G: So that made his mouth bleed and he had to go to the hospital. So of course, he reported to [the] police. You know, the police responded very quickly. And the bad guy, after the attack, ran away, and very quickly changed his clothes and took a taxi to the airport, and tried to fly to Korea.
But, you know, Taiwan’s police responded very quickly and caught him and arrested him in the airport. His name is Liao Gangfa.
W: Can you spell that?
G: L-I-A-O G-A-N-G-F-A. And he was not scared of the police.
So now, you know, they checked the information, you know. Liao Gangfa, before, he lived in Guangdong Province and later moved to Hong Kong. No one knows [if] the CCP helped him move to Hong Kong or he did it by himself. But we know he had the Hong Kong ID and then flew to Taiwan and stayed in Taiwan [for] 2 days.
In the 2 days, you know, he allegedly changed his hotel more than twice. And he followed 矢板 明夫 (Akio Yaita) and tried to get an opportunity to attack him. Yeah. So police suspect somebody or some organization is supporting him. Now the Taiwan government will use the law in Taiwan to punish that bad guy.
W: So Guangcheng, has this man admitted to being a CCP agent or not yet?
G: A lot of people online, they believe he is [the] CCP’s agent. But until now, the information [we have] is not enough to confirm about this information. I think Taiwan government will figure out all the details.
W: So Guangcheng, if this is a CCP agent, which you strongly suspect, and I definitely agree, what is the significance of this? Why should Americans and people outside of Taiwan be concerned? Because Guangcheng, we recently covered a story about an attack like that happening here in the US, right?
G: Yeah, this is happening more and more in the US. And the police are struggling to arrest [perpetrators].
W: And is it happening in other countries too, Guangcheng?
G: Yes, of course, that has happened in different countries; in London, in Germany, in France, even in Japan.
W: One last question, Guangcheng, the man who was attacked, is he okay?
G: Now he’s okay, you know, one doctor said, you know, his lip is broken. His teeth were chipped. He needed medical attention. Yeah.
W: Well, clearly this doesn’t get much reporting by the mainstream media, so we certainly encourage you to continue following these stories that we share at humanrights.catholic.edu. We’ll keep you updated on this story in Taiwan, but also others across the world of alleged CCP agents harassing and attacking citizens of other countries, right, Guangcheng?
G: Yeah.
W: Well, thank you all very much for tuning in to another episode of the Barefoot Lawyer Reports on China, and thank you, Guangcheng, for this information as always.
G: Thank you, Will. Thank you, everyone.
The Center for Human Rights has published countless articles and reports on issues facing China, the U.S., and the world. Reports from late 2022 revealed the existence of secret Chinese police stations operating around the world Including in the United States, raising serious concerns about foreign intimidation. A detailed analysis from the Center for Human Rights examines documented cases in Europe and the U.S.and reviews the legal frameworks that could help address this growing challenge. To read this report, go to our research and analysis page on humanrights.catholic.edu