Cross-border kidnapping in Taiwan is possible, especially as there are people in Taiwan who share the Chinese regime’s ideals and support unification, former Causeway Bay Books manager Lam Wing-kei (林榮基) said, adding that the Chinese government would not be responsible, but others would act on its behalf.
Lam made the remarks in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) after attending a public forum at the National 228 Memorial Museum in Taipei last week.
Causeway Bay Books, which was based in Hong Kong, was popular with tourists in search of books banned in China.
Photo: Su Yung-yao, Taipei Times
Lam, one of five men associated with the bookstore and its associated publishing house, disappeared at the end of 2015 and reappeared in China a few months later.
Incidents in which Chinese agents are accused of crossing the border to kidnap Hong Kong residents are part of Beijing’s efforts to maintain its rule of terror over Hong Kong and are a warning to Hong Kongers to restrict their speech, Lam said.
Hong Kong Democratic Party member Howard Lam (林子健) said he was kidnapped on a Hong Kong street in broad daylight on Saturday last week because of his plan to send a signed photograph of soccer player Lionel Messi to the widow of late Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波).
Lam Wing-kei said that such incidents are not necessarily restricted to Hong Kong and could occur in Taiwan.
There are people in Taiwan who consider themselves to be Chinese and share the Chinese regime’s ideal of “ultimate unification,” Lam Wing-kei said, adding that they could be anyone from university professors to pundits.
The government would not necessarily be aware of how many Chinese are acting within its borders, while certain media outlets are controlled by capitalists under Beijing’s influence, he said.
China does not need to send its agents, as there are people in Taiwan who would act on its behalf, Lam Wing-kei said.
Such people believe that their cultural ties to China supersede geography, like the Taiwan Strait, he said.
Regarding his own experience, Lam Wing-kei said he and his colleagues were kidnapped by Chinese security personnel, because the store sold a book about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) private life.
The Chinese Central Investigation Team, which questioned him, had a list of 600 mail orders for the book, information that had been stored solely on the bookstore’s computer system, he said, adding that the revelation was a shock.
It is a complex process to mail books to China from Hong Kong, and it is difficult to send things to Beijing and Shanghai, as the Chinese government screens all mail going to the two cities, Lam said.
To circumvent screening, the store sent the books to a depot that re-mailed them to their final destination, Lam said, adding that people in Taiwan and Hong Kong could never imagine so many considerations to just mail a book.
Lam Wing-kei said his visit to Taiwan was to select a possible location to re-open Causeway Bay Books.
He said he is considering Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) area, as it is favored by Chinese tourists and young Taiwanese.
The store would probably be on a second floor or higher to save on costs, although he said a first-floor location was possible.
“However, as I am a Hong Konger, I would live in Hong Kong,” he said.
Re-opening the bookstore in Taiwan would be far more than just a symbol of resistance — it would give young people another option for reading material, he said.
It would primarily sell books on the futures of Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, he said.
He encouraged younger generations be mindful of history and consider historical implications to help broaden sympathy and resonance for the ideals of independence.
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