China issues guidelines on criminal punishment

The country issued guidelines on imposing criminal punishment on “diehard Taiwan independence” separatists for conducting or inciting secession, state news agency Xinhua reported.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up pressure on the island after the inauguration last month of Lai Ching-te as president, a man Beijing despises as a “separatist”, including staging war games shortly after he took office.