Causeway Bay Books, the former Hong Kong bookstore that "sold books critical of Chinese leaders and fell victim to Beijing's persecution," is expected to reopen in Taipei after the Lunar New Year holiday later this month, Taiwan News reported.
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| Lam Wing-kee (via) | |
Lam Wing-kee, who founded Causeway Bay Books in 1994, fled to Taiwan last February after the Hong Kong government proposed a controversial extradition bill that has since been scrapped. Lam was one of five shareholders and staff members of Causeway Bay Books who disappeared into Chinese custody at the end of 2015, Taiwan News noted. He was released on bail and allowed to return to Hong Kong in June 2016 to retrieve a hard drive listing the bookstore's customers, but "jumped bail and went public, detailing how he was blindfolded by police after crossing the border into Shenzhen and spent months being interrogated."
In Taipei, he has raised nearly NT$6 million (about US$200,000) through online fundraising to reopen the bookstore, which he said will serve as a space "for free souls." Taiwan News noted that he has leased a space in a building near the Taipei Metro's Zhongshan Station.
"Although it's on the 10th floor, the store space is very much like the one in Hong Kong," said Lam, who hopes it will become a place where help is given to Hong Kong residents who have moved to Taiwan since Hong Kong became embroiled in protests in June.