The case of a Taipei comedy club being splattered with faeces and paint has been ruled an act of cross-border repression by the Chinese Communist Party. It is a warning sign for freedom of expression in Taiwan, and a landmark indictment in the effort to crack down on local collaborators.

• Prosecutors determined that a man surnamed Liu acted on the instructions of unidentified individuals in China, then recruited a man surnamed Kuo to splash paint and faeces at Kamikaze, paying him afterwards as a reward.
• The trigger was the wide online circulation of a clip from a performance by comedian Huang Yi-hao satirising Xi Jinping, along with his scheduled return to the stage.
• The incident damaged the premises, left the operators and performers fearful, and even led some audience members to request refunds.
• Prosecutors argued that lenient sentences would substantially lower the cost of the CCP's cross-border repression, and therefore recommended heavy sentences for the two men.
• China's Taiwan Affairs Office denied that any cross-border repression took place, while Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council questioned why the suspects had gone out of their way to restore their phones to factory settings.

Outlook: Attention now turns to whether the court accepts the call for heavy sentences, which will serve as an important benchmark for how Taiwan handles cases involving local collaborators.