TAIPEI (Taiwan) — Chinese nationalist TV pundit Sima Nan (司馬南) on Sunday (July 10) uploaded a Weibo post in which he encouraged a 21-year-old Taiwanese college student to make good on his threat to assassinate President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

Following the assassination of former Japan Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on July 8, a 22-year-old college graduate surnamed Chen (陳) was arrested in Tainan City for posting threats on PTT against the president's life with comments such as, "If it were me, I would want to execute Tsai Ing-wen by shooting." Chen claimed that he made the comment because of his frustration with politics.

Although police dismissed the possibility that he would act on his comments, he was still transferred to the prosecutor's office to be investigated on charges of threatening to cause injury.

On Sunday evening, Sima uploaded news about the youth's threat and arrest on his Weibo account. He reported the student had written that he wanted to shoot Tsai, only to later tell police that he was only joking and did not commit a crime.

Sima predicted that Chen would be released from police custody in a few days and the matter would blow over. However, he then posed the question, "What if it was not only a verbal threat to kill the Tsai faction, but actual action was taken to kill the Tsai faction, what would happen?"

He then proposed that there would be only two possibilities: "One is to successfully kill, and the other is to not successfully kill." He claimed that whether Chen succeeds in killing or not, "he wants to kill" and this was because "Tsai Ing-wen should be killed."

The commentator then elaborated on his rationale for why Tsai should be assassinated:

"Taiwan independence separatist forces represented by Tsai are constantly taking provocative actions seriously undermining the vital interests of the compatriots on both sides of the strait and the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, seriously undermining the peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and seriously challenging our bottom line of safeguarding national territorial integrity."

With these perceived infractions in mind, Sima then asked, "Excuse me, do you think she should be killed or not?"

The nationalist claimed that as a disciple of former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), Tsai "went further and further down the road of de-sinicization, always threatening the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait and undermining the political foundation of cross-strait relations." He then claimed that assassinating Tsai would be the only acceptable option for the outraged populace.

Sima wrote that if Chen indeed assassinated Tsai, it would be treated as a "heroic act" that would restore peace and stability to the Taiwan Strait and promote the process of peaceful unification with the "Motherland." Sima said the killing of Tsai would remove the head of the separatist forces seeking Taiwan independence and the biggest obstacle to the advancement of cross-strait relations.

He predicted that if Chen succeeded in assassinating Tsai, it would serve as a "serious warning to other Taiwan independence activists." The pundit then suggested that if someone in Taiwan's military responded and launched a mutiny to push for an internal solution to the "(Taiwan) problem," or if the issue of cross-strait unification could be solved at a lower cost, Chen would become known as a "righteous man of the blade, and would definitely leave his name in the annals of history."

Sima closed by arguing that Chen would be awarded the Order of Liberation for ending the Chinese Civil War. He pointed out the medal is handed out by China to members of the People's Liberation Army who participated in the "People's War of Liberation." He then claimed the "peaceful liberation" of Taiwan is the wish of all Chinese people and mused, "If the assassination of Tsai could achieve peaceful reunification, wouldn't it be amazing?"