A Chinese exchange student attending an event at National Taiwan University in Taipei on Monday last week recorded footage of President William Lai (賴清德) as he was delivering a speech. The student, who reports only identify by his surname, Wang (王), photographed Lai using a forced-perspective technique to create the impression that he had the president’s head between his fingers. He posted the image on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, posting comments such as: “Is this the only chance you’ll ever get?” “Take down ‘little Lai’” and “Say no to Taiwan independence secessionist actions.”
On Friday last week, the National Immigration Agency — having investigated the matter, and consulted with the Ministry of Education and the Mainland Affairs Council — deported Wang and revoked his entry permit, while barring him from entry for five years.
He was ejected from Taiwan that afternoon at 3pm.
The investigation and the deportation was swift and decisive, yet one wonders whether the response was adequate for the enormity of the student’s actions.
The exchange student was only publicly identified by his surname. What purpose was served by concealing his full name? The person he threatened was not a fellow student or a random passerby, it was the nation’s president. This constitutes a serious national security issue, but where was the acknowledgement of the gravity of the situation from the authorities?
Had it been a Taiwanese student who threatened the president, it is unlikely that they would have been able to get away with it by saying, as Wang did: “I had no intention of physically harming anyone.”
The threat was from an overseas exchange student who had been allowed to pursue their studies in this country. Should he not have been dealt with more severely?
Was he given special immunity because he was an exchange student? Did the authorities believe that how they handled the matter created “a teaching moment”? Why not ban him from returning to Taiwan for life?
With Wang getting off so lightly after threatening the president, what is to discourage other exchange students from engaging in unruly behavior, especially those from China, which harbors hostile intent toward Taiwan?
The case of Taiwanese student Sun An-tso (孫安佐), who at 18 was younger than Wang when he was accused of threatening to open fire at his high school in the US, is a useful comparison.
Sun was studying at a high school in Pennsylvania. In March 2018 he said to his classmates not to go to school on May 1, as he was going to shoot the school up. When the police became aware of this they acted immediately and took Sun into custody. Twenty-nine days after his arrest he faced a preliminary hearing at a local police station in Pennsylvania, handcuffed and dressed in a blue prison uniform. He was convicted in a federal court and jailed before being released and deported, with a lifetime ban from entry to the US.
Sun, who had threatened to shoot his classmates, was incarcerated for more than seven months before being deported and banned from entering the US for the rest of his life.
Wang, who threatened to “take down little Lai,” was deported without having to serve time in prison, and banned for only five years from returning to Taiwan.
Was the US too heavy-handed or is Taiwan not taking the issue seriously enough?
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired associate professor at National Hsinchu University of Education.
Translated by Paul Cooper