Taiwan's prosecutors say attacks on a Taipei comedy club were ordered from China, a sign of how far Beijing will reach to punish mockery of Xi Jinping.

• A Taipei comedy club was splashed with paint and feces after a performer mocked Xi Jinping on stage last year.
• Taipei prosecutors charged two men with intimidation and vandalism, saying one took instructions from an unidentified Chinese national.
• The routine hit Beijing's sore spots: scrapping term limits, the Hong Kong protest crackdown, and zero-Covid.
• Finance commentator Emmy Hu mocked the attack as proof the act landed, joking that Xi himself must have noticed.
• The case is being read in Taiwan as evidence that cross-strait pressure now reaches small venues and individual comedians, not just politicians and media.

Outlook: Expect the prosecution to become a test case for how Taiwan handles Beijing-directed harassment on its own soil, with more scrutiny of similar incidents likely.