Police offer bounty for clues about 2 Taiwan online influencers

The police in Quanzhou, East China's Fujian province, issued a notice offering a bounty for clues on the criminal activities of two Taiwan online influencers — Wen Tzu-yu, known as Pa Chiung, and Chen Po-yuan, a rapper known as Minnan Wolf — who are accused of splitting the country and inciting national division.

Individuals providing relevant information that assists in the apprehension of the suspects could receive a reward ranging from 50,000 to 250,000 yuan ($6,880 to $34,400), police said.

Chen Binhua, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Thursday that the two suspects have repeatedly published and spread rhetoric advocating for resisting the Chinese mainland to "protect" Taiwan and relying on the United States for "independence", inciting national division.

The two have smeared mainland policies benefiting Taiwan residents, and have also targeted mainland spouses and individuals who support the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, Chen said, adding that their actions have a "vile influence".

He said the police action was a response to address alleged crimes of splitting the country and inciting national division and encouraged people on both sides of the Strait to provide information and to oppose "Taiwan independence" activities.

In October, the police in Xiamen, Fujian issued a bounty notice for clues on illegal activities of 18 core members of Taiwan military's "psychological warfare unit", handling tasks such as disinformation, intelligence gathering, tactical psychological warfare, broadcast propaganda, and mobilization, to incite secession.