Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) yesterday called on law enforcement authorities to treat the recent paint attack on Lam Wing-kei (林榮基), a former co-owner of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books, as a national security matter.
Chao said that if it was treated like a regular criminal case, it would easily get swept under the rug, so authorities should deal with it as a national security issue involving coordinated criminal groups.
“If the masterminds behind the plot are not identified, then attacks like this will recur again and again. The dark forces behind them will continue to operate from abroad, out of reach of our laws, and they will continue to pose a danger to democracy activists,” he said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Chao invited Lam to attend yesterday’s briefing, along with Criminal Investigation Bureau Deputy Commissioner Liao Hsun-cheng (廖訓誠) and officials from the National Security Bureau’s (NSB) Third Department.
“I read in media reports that the judges went easy on the suspects, as they were released on bail of a few thousand New Taiwan dollars,” Lam said. “Is this not encouraging these suspects to continue to carry out such attacks?”
“The judges said they considered the human rights of the suspects … but the victims who were hurt in the assault, they should have their human rights protected as well,” he added.
“These people likely received money from China,” Lam said. “If judges hand out lenient sentences, then I will really [fear for myself], worrying that these people are looking for me again.”
“Although these suspects promised they would not hurt me, they have committed a crime once and they can do it again a second time... If that happens, then what can I do? Do I not have human rights as well?” he said.
Chao said that Lam was not the only Hong Konger to be attacked in the past few years.
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), singer Denise Ho (何韻詩) and others were attacked when they visited Taiwan, but the courts usually found the suspects not guilty, or released them on bail, he said.
“Together, the police departments, criminal investigation agencies, prosecutors and all the way to the NSB, they should upgrade the paint attack on Lam” to a national security-level issue, Chao said,
The authorities must uncover the masterminds and cut off their money, “because it is not just an attack on one victim, it is also an attack on Taiwan’s democracy and freedom,” he said.
The authorities should not just sit on their hands, he said.
They should be proactive in gathering evidence and sharing intelligence to ensure that “our citizens and democracy activists in Taiwan can have security ... and to prove to everyone that Taiwan is a country in which we do not allow the forces of Chinese Communist Party and their proxies to run rampant,” he added.
“We have asked our field operation office to find out if China was involved into this case, and also asked the public to provide us with information,” said Lin Shih-wei (林世偉), section chief of the National Security Division of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau (MJIB). “The bureau will certainly investigate this case and possible breaches of the Anti-Infiltration Act [反滲透法].”
Lam said that the government should review related laws and fortify them, as it is his hope that the law not just protects Hong Kongers, but also Taiwanese.
Lam was one of five shareholders and staff at Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong, which sold controversial books about China’s leaders.
He disappeared into Chinese custody at the end of 2015, and was released on bail and allowed to return to Hong Kong in June 2016 to retrieve a hard drive listing the bookstore’s customers. Instead, he jumped bail and went public.
He fled to Taiwan in April last year and on Saturday last week opened a bookstore in Taipei. He was splashed with paint by two men the previous Tuesday.
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