Hong Kong’s arrest of several key journalists and executives of Apple Daily have spurred anger in Taiwanese political circles, with people variously calling it “red terror” and a fresh reason not to reunite with mainland China.

Taiwan effectively split from the mainland after a bitter civil war ended in 1949, with the defeated Kuomintang establishing its own government, military and currency. Beijing sees the island as a renegade province.

In Taipei, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu decried the police’s five arrests and 500-strong operation to search the newspaper’s office and confiscate a large amount of items, including editorial information.

Wu said in a newspaper report by the Guardian that his “anger and sadness are beyond what words can describe … Authoritarianism is waging a brutal war on Apple Daily, a desperately endangered symbol of freedom in Hong Kong.”

The Mainland Affairs Council under the Taiwanese government said that the crackdown on Apple Daily would further alienate Hongkongers and make China’s image “unbearable.” It added: “Now the Hong Kong government is using draconian laws to deal with the news media, which is hard to imagine in a democratic country.”

A Taiwanese lawmaker described the incident as red terror. New Power Party’s Chiu Hsien-chi said the arrests had created a “chilling effect” and hindered checks and balances by Hong Kong’s civic society.

Another lawmaker, Wang Ting-yu of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, agreed, saying it was “a consequence of being part of China.”

The Taiwan People’s Party said the law enforcement action was “ironically” opposite to the “credible, loveable and respectable” image that the Chinese government was trying to create, as indicated by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s words to his senior officials recently.

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