Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee (林榮基) said that China was behind an attack against him, after his three alleged assailants were released on bail yesterday.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s proxies have a history of attacks carried out against Hong Kongers who fled to Taiwan,” Lam told reporters. “Now they are only causing trouble for Hong Kongers, but later they will make trouble for Taiwanese.”
Lam said that he would be more vigilant.
Photo taken from the Mainland Affairs Council’s Facebook page
“I was quite surprised to hear that the suspects got released on bail so quickly,” he added. “I am, of course, fearful and will avoid walking down dark alleys.”
Lam was co-owner of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books (銅鑼灣書店), but was kidnapped in 2015 and detained in China for eight months for selling books banned by the Chinese government.
He was finally freed on bail and returned to Hong Kong, but opted not to return to China to face trial. He fled to Taiwan in May last year.
The opening of his new bookstore in Taipei is planned for tomorrow.
On Tuesday, Lam was at a coffee shop in Taipei when he was doused in red paint by an assailant, who street cameras showed fleeing on foot while two other men acted as lookouts.
Police in Kaohsiung on Wednesday arrested the three suspects — identified as Cheng Chi-lung (鄭啟龍), 55, who has a criminal record, along with brothers Tseng Shih-sheng (曾士晟), 28, and Tseng Shih-feng (曾士峰), 27 — and transferred them to Taipei for questioning.
Besides promising to enhance patrols around Lam’s new bookstore, Taipei police cited evidence of additional suspects, saying that they were tracking them down.
Yesterday, the three were released on bail of between NT$6,000 and NT$20,000.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday applied with the High Court to have the three returned to detention, saying that they are likely to collude with the other suspects sought and destroy evidence.
Lam urged Taiwanese authorities to determine the mastermind behind the attack, saying that China had sent its proxies to Taiwan to physically assault and silence Hong Kongers.
On Sept. 29 last year, Hong Kong singer and actress Denise Ho (何韻詩) was also attacked in Taipei with red paint, during a pro-democracy rally for Hong Kong.
“It is not just one or two people, but a whole group of people working for China,” Lam said. “If the authorities do not get to the real force behind them, these incidents will continue to occur.”
An Internet user named “Jonathan Gao” further threatened Lam on the Mainland Affairs Council’s Facebook page, writing: “Lam you had better be careful — that was only our first warning to you. We have many gangster brothers in Taipei and we have many ways to harass you to death.”
The “Jonathan Gao” Facebook account belongs to someone who claims to be from Taiwan, but who resides in Singapore, Taipei police said, adding that the person purportedly belongs to several pro-China organizations, including the Concentric Patriotism Alliance and the China Unification Promotion Party.
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