Lam Wing-kei’s (林榮基) plans to open a Causeway Bay Books store in Taipei have been met with challenges and have now been postponed indefinitely, Lam said on Wednesday.
After being unlawfully detained by Chinese authorities in late 2015, the owner of the former Hong Kong-based bookstore, known for selling books banned in China, announced plans to reopen the store in Taiwan, but has faced repeated challenges in the form of fake investors with links to China and smear campaigns by pro-China media sources in Hong Kong.
The government should see the importance of assisting Lam and helping him succeed, which would highlight free-speech rights in Taiwan compared with those in Hong Kong and China, while reminding Taiwanese what is at risk by giving in to Beijing.
Raids on the Chinese Unity Promotion Party’s headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday and at the home of party founder Chang An-le (張安樂) show the government’s concern about questionable cross-strait links and their effect on the nation’s democracy.
Police said they acted on suspicions that Chang was receiving funding from China to carry out destabilizing activities in Taiwan, including supporting his own pro-unification candidates in the nine-in-one elections.
In a separate case, New Party spokesman Wang Ping-chung (王炳忠) was in June indicted on charges of espionage in exchange for Chinese funding.
However, the China-linked investors who bought the rights to the name “Causeway Bay” in Taiwan and approached Lam under false pretenses show that proponents of China’s “united front” go beyond key figures such as Chang and Wang.
Then-minister of the interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) addressed the issue in April last year when he said that while Taiwan had made great strides in its transformation from an authoritarian society that habitually censored free speech to a liberal democracy, infringements persist, especially regarding China’s censorship of Taiwanese freedom of expression in politics and economics.
On April 16, the New York Times reported that Taiwan has emerged as “one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies” to replace Hong Kong as Asia’s “bastion of free speech.”
As Taiwan has been gaining freedoms, Hong Kong has been losing them due to Chinese pressure and self-censorship in the semi-autonomous territory.
However, the article said that Taiwan has also compromised its political values on many occasions to avoid angering Beijing by sending asylum seekers back to China and making it more difficult for Chinese rights advocates, such as Zhao Sile (趙思樂), to attend events in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday deleted a tweet poking fun at China for banning the film Christopher Robin.
“We Hong Kong people look to Taiwan for lessons,” Lam was quoted as saying in the New York Times article, but what lessons are Hong Kongers to learn if free, democratic Taiwan censors itself for the sake of Beijing?
China is pressing Taiwan, trying to wipe out any reference to it as an independent, sovereign nation.
As the government has demonstrated resolve in tackling China’s “united front” tactics, it should also seek to show China and the world that Taiwan’s voice will not be silenced.
The best way to do that is through a symbol of tenacious disobedience in the face of Chinese oppression, such as Lam’s bookstore.
A bookstore or publicly funded reading space in the middle of Taipei where authors, dissidents and rights advocates can meet to hold discussions would allow Lam to realize his ambitions and showcase how Taiwan’s strong democracy stands in stark contrast to oppressive China.
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