Yang Chih-yuen, a Taiwan resident suspected of involvement in separatist Taiwan independence activities and endangering national security, has been under surveillance at a designated residence since August 4 after being arrested by the Wenzhou State Security Bureau in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.
On Aug 3, the bureau summoned the suspect and placed him under surveillance the following day, China Central Television reported on Wednesday.
CCTV said that Yang's family had been informed about the changes in surveillance measures in line with the law, with more details of the man's secessionist activities being revealed.
According to the details disclosed so far, Yang, who was born in 1990 and is from Taichung, Taiwan, has long been poisoned by the thought of Taiwan independence and began to engage in separatist activities when he was a middle school student in 2006.
He was selected by Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party as a target to cultivate due to his active involvement in the Wild Strawberries Movement, a protest on the island in 2008, according to CCTV.
He was later named head of the DPP Youth League in Taichung and became a key member of the Taiwan independence separatist forces, according to the station.
In 2011, Yang helped establish the Taiwanese National Party, which took the initiative to plan and implement a series of secessionist activities in an attempt to build a state through a referendum.
After becoming vice-chairman of the Taiwanese National Party in 2019, he began to manage the party's affairs as acting chairman in 2019 and push Taiwan independence and promote the idea of independence in the shortest time.
In the same year that year, Yang was asked by Chen Shui-bian, the former Taiwan regional leader and secessionist, to represent the Taiwan Action Party Alliance during the election of a legislator for Yonghe district in New Taipei City, Taiwan. During the election, Yang advocated for Taiwan independence and incited confrontations between the island and the mainland, according to CCTV.
Yang colluded with separatist forces to support Hong Kong secessionists and incited secessionist forces to work together during the turbulence over the city's national security amendment bill in 2019.
CCTV said the case against Yang is still ongoing, with a further investigation being conducted by the national security bureau in Wenzhou.
The news of Yang's capture came after a spokesman for the Communist Party of China Central Committee made remarks on Aug 3 about punishing die-hard Taiwanie separatists.
On Wednesday, Yonghong, deputy director of the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University in Fujian province, welcomed the mainland's punishment for Taiwan independence secessionists on his account on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform.
He said that the mainland has started to exercise legal jurisdiction over the island because of the case of Yang, and that the mainland has begun to pursue accountability for 'Taiwan independence' secessionists.
State security departments will use legal means such as the Anti-Secession Law and the National Security Law to punish those who resist reunification, seek independence, undermine peace or curb development, he said.
He said it is likely that Yang will be the first secessionist to be held accountable, but by no means the last.