Taiwanese prosecutors have charged five men over a plot to ram a car into a comedian who made fun of the Chinese Communist party and Xi Jinping .

Taiwan has repeatedly accused China of transnational repression to silence critics on the self-governed island, which Beijing claims as its territory and has vowed to take by force if necessary.

In one performance, Huang Yi-hao insulted the Chinese leader’s appearance, compared him to Winnie-the-Pooh and tore into his political record.

Prosecutors in New Taipei said on Wednesday that an individual from mainland China who was identified as “K” had paid the five defendants to injure Huang badly enough to require hospitalisation.

The prosecutors said: “This case involves a serious incident in which the Chinese Communist party is suspected of using cross-border suppression tactics to direct lawless elements in our country to suppress dissenting political voices through extreme violence.”

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to requests for comment.

A GPS…