A Hong Kong bookseller who in 2019 relocated to Taipei after being prosecuted by Chinese authorities recently applied for permanent residency in Taiwan, a government source said on Monday last week.
The move came after Lam Wing-kei (林榮基), a former manager of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books, initially did not accept the “humanitarian aid” political asylum offered by the government.
In 2015, Lam, another shareholder of Causeway Bay Books and three staff members were reported missing and later confirmed to be detained by mainland Chinese authorities, which accused them of selling books about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that are prohibited in mainland China.
Photo: Johnson Lai, AP
Lam was imprisoned for nearly eight months, and the CCP asked him to disclose the bookstore’s customers and their orders in exchange for his release. Lam in June 2016 returned to Hong Kong, with his criminal record showing a conviction in China for “illegal operation of book sales.”
When widespread protests over a proposed extradition bill to mainland China rocked the territory in 2019, Lam on April 25 fled to Taiwan, saying that he feared being prosecuted again by mainland authorities.
With the support of a crowdfunding campaign, Lam in April 2020 reopened Causeway Bay Books in Taipei.
An unnamed official in Taipei last week said that the central government had helped Lam apply for permanent residency.
In addition to helping other Taiwan-based Hong Kongers, Lam has been working hard to run his bookstore in Taipei, conveying his principles and ideas to Taiwanese one book at a time, the official said.
While often speaking out about his experiences in China, Lam helps Taiwan protect its freedom and democracy, they said.
Lam, as a “modest gentleman,” initially refused to accept the offer of political asylum and has since 2019 been staying in the nation on a temporary residence permit, they added.
Lam had applied with the Ministry of Culture for permanent residency as a “special professional” in the field of culture, the official said.
If the ministry approves his application, it would forward the case to the National Immigration Agency, which would issue a permanent residency card, the official said.
Government data show that 11,173 Hong Kongers hold residence permits in Taiwan, including 1,685 who were granted permanent residency last year, an annual record.
In the first seven months of this year, 4,143 Hong Kongers received temporary residence permits and 892 received permanent residency, the data show.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires