‘Publishing these books is a risk’: Taiwan’s booksellers stand up for democracy

Zeng Da-fu runs a bookshop in southern Taipei and is a major investor in Gusa Publishing, whose editor-in-chief has been arrested in China. Photograph: Helen Davidson/The Guardian

In 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.