Comedian hit with car in Taiwan after criticising Xi, prosecutors say

Five people have been indicted in Taiwan for allegedly plotting to mow down a comedian with a car after his shows made fun of the Chinese government, including President Xi Jinping.

The Taiwanese defendants were hired by a Chinese person and began tracking comedian Huang Yi-hao in July and planned to break his arms and legs so he could not perform, according to the New Taipei Prosecutors Office.

Mr Huang was hit and injured by a car as he rode home on his scooter last month, leaving him with a bruised pelvis.

Two of the defendants have admitted their involvement in the plan to injure the stand-up comedian, according to prosecutors.

Mr Huang said he only criticised Mr Xi for two and a half minutes - and his only fear at the time was that the audience would not laugh.

"Yet I was subsequently targeted with both a faeces-throwing attack and a deliberate vehicular assault," he wrote in a statement on Facebook.

In May, two people were prosecuted after spreading faeces and paint at a comedy club in Taipei hours before Mr Huang's scheduled performance.

Mr Huang thanked prosecutors and police for their work on the case and publicly invited them to his upcoming shows.

"If people can already be subjected to this kind of treatment simply for criticising the Chinese Communist Party when it does not even govern Taiwan, how can we expect to retain our current freedom of speech if the CCP were ever to rule Taiwan?" he posted.

China's government is not tolerant of criticism of its leadership.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained that Beijing is trying to use "transnational repression" to go after people in Taiwan who the Chinese government views as separatists or are otherwise politically suspect.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said anyone who accepted orders from China's Communist Party or its collaborators to take part in transnational repression would be "pursued to the end, with no leniency".

But Beijing claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Organisation Keep Taiwan Free said "intimidation must never become the price of speaking freely in Taiwan" following the alleged attack on Mr Huang.

"Whatever the target—a comedian, an activist, a journalist, or an ordinary citizen," it wrote.

"Taiwan's democracy depends on people being able to speak, criticise, joke, and disagree without fear."