China will prosecute you if you say Taiwan is independent.

Global voices has a long essay on how China will seek out to arrest and try and even execute those saying Taiwan is an independent state.

read the whole thing at the link, but this is the important part: They will find you and arrest you even if you don't live in China.

The guidelines also specify that Chinese security authorities could issue international warrants on suspects and take action to arrest them. The Chinese government has an extradition agreement with 65 countries. Between 1997 and 2022, more than 420 Uyghurs were extradited to China from the Middle East and South and Central Asia. Under the pretext of fighting Islamic extremism, reportedly, more than a million Uyghurs had been detained in Xinjiang internment camps as of 2020.

so how could they do this? Uh, maybe via their international police stations: Wikipedia Wikipedia even has a page on them, 

And Wikipedia also has a page on their  Operation Fox hunt. which has been going on for quite a few years.

We’re seeing the Chinese government resort to blackmail, threats of violence, stalking, and kidnappings. They’ve actually engaged criminal organizations in the U.S., offering them bounties in hopes of successfully taking targets back to China. China applies incredible pressure on the targets of those efforts, many of whom still have family back in China. Some, unaware the Party was after them, have traveled back to China for a visit, only to find themselves suddenly trapped, and prevented from leaving. —

Christopher A. Wray (January 31, 2022)

 

but Taiwan's elected government says no

China has no right to sanction Taiwanese people for their political opinions or pursue prosecution across borders. Democracy is not a crime; autocracy is what’s truly malicious. Once again, I urge China to choose dialogue with Taiwan's democratically elected government.

— 賴清德Lai Ching-te (@ChingteLai) June 24, 2024

wikipedia on China's anti secession law.

this is one reason that the Philippines is getting more suspicious of miliary age "students" and casino workers from China.

And is the back story about the Chinese lady who became mayor of a small town near a military base who hid her citizenship. Here is a long video of the hearings about her ties: alas it is four hours long, and in Tagalog/English but has all the details in the beginning of the video...,

the problem is that China controls the economy and Chinese mobsters run the drug trade and smuggling, and many Filipinos who run the country are part Chinese of the diaspora so have links to China or could be vulnerable to Chinese blackmail: separating the economy from the Chinese connection is difficult, but so far the local business community  which includes many Chinoys, is taking the side of the Philippines but then there are the Chinese run business groups, and some of these groups ask for de escalation of the tension between the countries.

the problem of course is that China is a bully, and the only way to de-escalate the threat is to give them what they want and slink away in shame, bowing to the Emperor and promising obedience to Xi's dictatorship.

To make things worse: There are 20 thousand plus Philippine OFW in Hong Kong, who essentially are hostages if war should break out.

As for me: China hacked the US Federal OPM files a decade ago, so I am probably on a list somewhere in China, along with about 40 thousand other Yanks (plus Balkibayan) who worked for the US. Presumably we are all on a list.

So when I joke about China  invading Luzon, it is only a half hearted joke.

of course, the way things are going, there are quite a few lists who probably have my name, and not all of them are in China...