Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Taiwanese Support Controversial Hong Kong Bookseller, But Probably Won't Buy
His Books

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI - Taiwanese people jammed the narrow aisles inside Lam
   Wing-kee's Causeway Bay Books when it opened here on Saturday and a lot
   wanted to chat with the Hong Kong-born vendor who fled to Taiwan last
   year following an arrest at the hands of China over titles that
   offended the Communist leadership.

   The more than 1,000 people who packed his downtown Taipei store over
   the first hours of business support the idea of his reopening in
   Taiwan, which has full free speech, and resent China for killing his
   operation of Causeway Way Books in the Chinese territory Hong Kong. Lam
   was one of five Hong Kong sellers who disappeared in 2015 over book
   content.

   Lam was jailed in mainland China but allowed to return to Hong Kong and
   retrieve his computer as part of the case against his store. He never
   went back to the mainland.

   But most Taiwanese are considered unlikely to buy books about Chinese
   politics and leaders -- the type that incited government anger over the
   Hong Kong store -- since they normally read other types of material and
   increasingly find it online rather than in bound volumes.

   "Actually, a lot of people who are coming here support Hong Kong," said
   Paul Lin, a writer and friend of Lam who showed for the store's opening
   day. "One thing is to show that Taiwan is the paragon of the ethnic
   Chinese world for freedom of speech and freedom of publication, which
   is tough in other places."

   Lam runs his store now from a single-room 10th-floor office in a chic
   young people's shopping district sprinkled with cafes, hair salons and
   other booksellers. Customers who showed Saturday said they wanted to
   support Lam after learning about the sometimes violent protests in Hong
   Kong last year against rule by China.

.