Former ‘missing bookseller’ plans to reopen store in Taiwan as ‘symbol of resistance’

Bookseller Lam Wing-kee attends an interview in Hong Kong, June 19, 2016. Photo: Bobby Yip/Reuters
Bookseller Lam Wing-kee attends an interview in Hong Kong, June 19, 2016. Photo: Bobby Yip/Reuters

Lam Wing-kee, one of the five Hong Kong booksellers abducted by China, announced yesterday that he plans to reopen his bookshop in Taiwan as a “symbol of resistance”.

Lam, who is the only bookseller to have spoken publicly about his ordeal in China, told the Nikkei Asian Review that the shop will open in the second half of the year and is being funded by a group of pro-democracy activists. The 62-year-old said he chose to open the bookstore in Taipei as “Hong Kong’s protection for the fourth estate is just incomparable with [that of] Taiwan.”

While Lam previously ran Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong, he will be overseeing the Taipei outlet’s opening as an adviser, rather than a day-to-day operations manager. He will not be relocating to Taiwan, as he says he would like to “stay [in Hong Kong] to fight for democratic changes”.

Lam was detained in mainland China from October 2015 to June 2016 for circulating banned books about past and present high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party. His colleagues Gui Minhai, Lui Bo, Lee Bo, and Cheung Chi-ping, all went missing between mid-October and late December 2015. Other than from Gui, a Swedish national abducted whilst holidaying in Thailand, the other four booksellers have since been released.

Last month, press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders said it had chosen to open its first Asian bureau in Taiwan rather than the first choice, Hong Kong, over the deteriorating freedom of press in the city. Shortly afterwards, the group ranked Hong Kong as number 73 in its annual World Press Freedom Index, almost 30 places after Taiwan (number 45), which attained the highest ranking in Asia.



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