‘Publishing these books is a risk’: Taiwan’s booksellers stand up for democracy
I n a bookstore near one of Taipei’s leading universities, Zeng Da-fu and his wife work quietly into the evening. Zeng has run this store for decades, tucked in a laneway behind a wall of crumbling posters. They sell books on history and politics and Chinese translations of foreign texts, mainly to students but also once to Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, Zeng notes proudly. His work is crucial to the defence of Taiwan’s democracy, he says. This week that battle came close to home.
Zeng, 75, is also a big investor in Gusa Publishing, a company whose editor-in-chief, Li Yanhe, was this week revealed to be detained in China on national security accusations.
Li, also known by his pen-name Fucha, disappeared shortly after arriving in Shanghai to visit family last month. His detention by authorities was only revealed this week when a Taiwan-based Chinese poet and editor, Bei Ling, posted the news on social media, sending shock waves through Taiwan.
For days, Taiwan’s government would say only that he was safe and that his family had asked for privacy. Then on Thursday, Beijing confirmed that Li was detained, under investigation for “conducting activities endangering national security”.
Zeng and his wife know Li well.
“Fucha is good and kind and wants to publish good books, but it’s hard in China because of censorship,” he says.
The case has sent chills through the island’s community of booksellers and writers, echoing previous cases of Chinese authorities targeting writers and disseminators of critical or politically sensitive literature – Li was not even the only case this week. It also comes at a time of deepening authoritarianism in China, and escalating hostilities between Beijing and Taiwan.
Often, there is little to no
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