14 N THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONALSUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Inside a
hushed bookstore in central
Taipei one recent night, Ju Lee-
wen stood beneath a large black
banner that said “Revolution
Now!” and raised her fist into
the air.
Ms. Ju, a 26-year-old lawyer, is
concerned by China’s increas-
ingly authoritarian policies,
including harsh new security
laws in Hong Kong. She went to
Causeway Bay Books, an irrever-
ent shop stocked with volumes
critical of the Chinese Commu-
nist Party, to show her support
for democracy in Hong Kong and
Taiwan.
“We have to fight to protect
our freedom and our future,” Ms.
Ju said.
Causeway Bay Books, which
occupies a cramped room on the
10th floor of a drab office build-
ing, has in recent weeks become
a gathering place for people
worried about the future of Tai-
wan, a self-ruling democracy
that China claims as its own. As
China’s leaders lead a sweeping
crackdown on free speech and
activism in Hong Kong, fears are
growing that Beijing may move
to more aggressively bring Tai-
wan, too, under its control.
Hundreds of people come to
the store each week to peruse
books forbidden in the mainland.
They pick up exposés on the
private lives of China’s leaders,
historical accounts of events like
the Tiananmen Square massacre,
and dystopian novels like George
Orwell’s “1984.”
One book about China’s power-
ful leader, Xi Jinping, is titled,
“The Zombie Who Rules the
Country.”
Standing beneath banners
calling for independence for
Hong Kong, visitors join in occa-
sional chants of “Fight for free-
dom!” On a wall of colorful sticky
notes near the front door, they
write withering criticisms of
China. “Tyranny must die,” says
one note.
Causeway Bay Books has
become a symbol of Taiwan’s
vibrant democracy at a time
when the island is trying to pro-
mote itself as an alternative to
China’s authoritarian system.
The president of Taiwan, Tsai
Ing-wen, visited recently, as have
scores of government workers,
students and commentators who
are critical of China.
“It’s like a lighthouse of a free
society,” said Leo Hong, 38, an
employee at a state-owned com-
pany who visited one recentnight to buy a book of photo-
graphs documenting antigovern-
ment protests in Hong Kong last
year.
The store straddles the line
between mom-and-pop shop and
political war room, with delicate
floral wallpaper juxtaposed with
stark banners declaring, “Free
Hong Kong.”
Many people come to catch a
glimpse of Lam Wing-kee, the
owner and manager, a bookseller
from Hong Kong who fled to
Taiwan last year. Mr. Lam was
one of five booksellers who were
abducted by the Chinese authori-
ties in 2015 for selling books
critical of the ruling party. He
was detained and spent five
months in solitary confinement.
“He wants to let Taiwanese
people know what kind of regime
the Chinese Communist Party
is,” said Chen Tsai-neng, 55, a
radio show host who visits fre-quently. Mr. Chen said he often
discusses China’s history of
authoritarianism with Mr. Lam
and other customers.
“He wants to tell people that
the Chinese Communist Party
and the individuals who are in
power behind this cultural tradi-
tion are unreliable,” Mr. Chen
said.
Mr. Lam opened the Taipei
store in April, reviving the name
of his old store in Hong Kong.
From noon to 9 p.m. each day, he
wanders around the store recom-
mending books to customers,
slipping out regularly to smoke
on a balcony. The store doubles
as his home; he sleeps on a bunk
bed behind a cashier’s desk.
Mr. Lam said he wants the
people of Taiwan to have a place
where they can reflect on the
challenges facing the island,
including China’s efforts to iso-
late it politically.“Taiwan is unstable right now,”
he said. “And one thing is clear:
China is giving Taiwan this insta-
bility.”
The bookstore has its share of
critics. Some believe the selec-
tion of books offers a skewed
portrait of modern China, focus-
ing too much on negative por-
trayals.
The store has also ignited
debate about whether Taiwan
should accept political refugees
like Mr. Lam. Ms. Tsai and her
governing Democratic Progres-
sive Party have vowed to help
more activists from Hong Kong
find shelter in Taiwan. Some
members of the opposition party,
the Kuomintang, believe such a
move risks retaliation by Beijing.
Mr. Lam has become a target.
In April, shortly before opening
the store, two men attacked him
with red paint as he walked to abreakfast shop in Taipei. The
men were later arrested.
As tensions with the mainland
rise, many visitors say they feel
a sense of camaraderie at the
store, where they discuss issues
like military policy and whether
Taiwan should seek formal inde-
pendence, a move that Beijing
has long adamantly resisted.
Some worry about the possibility
of a military conflict in which
Taiwan would be caught in the
middle, if relations between
China and the United States
continue to deteriorate.
The Chinese government’s
decision in June to impose
sweeping national security laws
in Hong Kong, giving the authori-
ties broad powers to crack down
on a variety of political crimes,
has galvanized many Taiwanese
to speak out.
“Some think what has been
happening in Hong Kong is a
glimpse into Taiwan’s future,”
said Chen Wei-nung, 36, who
works part-time at a public opin-
ion survey company.
The collections of sticky notes
near the entrance mimic similar
displays created last year by
protesters in Hong Kong. There
are doodles of Mr. Xi wearing a
crown and quotes from Captain
America. Ms. Tsai, Taiwan’s
leader, left a note during her visit
that read, “A free Taiwan sup-
ports Hong Kong’s liberty.”
Ms. Ju, the lawyer who visited
the store recently, purchased a
book on China’s internet controls
as well as a history of the Hong
Kong protests. Before she left,
she stopped to write a message
on the wall of sticky notes.
“Freedom forever,” she wrote.
“Freedom for Taiwan.”TAIWAN DISPATCHA Bookstore for Readers Dedicated to Avoiding Hong Kong’s Fate
Lam Wing-kee, owner and manager of Causeway Bay Books, fled Hong Kong for Taipei last year. Abducted by the Chinese authori-
ties in 2015, he spent five months in solitary confinement. A wall in the store is adorned by readers’ messages exalting freedom.PHOTOGRAPHS BY AN RONG XU FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESBy JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ
and AMY CHANG CHIENTARIJA, Bolivia — Antigovern-
ment protesters in Bolivia block-
aded some of the country’s main
roads last week to challenge the
delay of general elections and re-
buke the government’s poor re-
sponse to the coronavirus pan-
demic.
The protesters — who support
Bolivia’s former president, Evo
Morales — say they have set up 70
roadblocks, marooning about six
million residents of three highland
regions, including Bolivia’s most
important metropolis, La Paz. Al-
ready, the blockade has raised
fears of food and gasoline short-
ages, pushing throngs of La Paz
residents into the streets to line up
outside food markets and gasoline
stations.
Bolivia’s unrest could be a har-
binger of what’s to come else-
where in Latin America, where
citizens are losing faith in their
countries’ ability to contain the
pandemic, and to mitigate the eco-
nomic crisis brought on by meas-
ures to combat the virus.
The pandemic has killed more
than 210,000 people in Latin
America and plunged its economy
into the deepest recession in at
least a century, according to the
United Nations. Bolivia is suffer-
ing one of the biggest outbreaks in
the region, when adjusted for pop-
ulation; the virus has killed 3,000,
sickened top government officials
and overwhelmed hospitals.
The government on Thursday
said it would break up the block-
ades by force if it can’t reach an
agreement with the protest organ-
izers. The threat revived fears of a
return to last year’s political vio-
lence, when two dozen of Mr. Mo-
rales’s supporters died during
clashes with Bolivian security
forces.
Protest organizers said they
were allowing medical workers,
medical suppliers and fuel to pass
through the blockades. But gov-
ernment health officials said the
blockades have reduced the sup-
ply of oxygen and other materials
for coronavirus treatment, caus-
ing deaths.
Although there are no official
figures, doctors from local hospi-
tals said at least eight patients
have died in the cities of Oruro and
El Alto, outside La Paz, because of
oxygen shortages this week.
The protesters “don’t let ambu-
lances pass, they pelt them with
stones, threaten to burn them,”
said Dr. Antonio Viruez, the head
of the emergency department at
El Alto’s Northern Hospital, thecity’s largest. “The situation is
critical, because the inputs are not
arriving.”
Last week’s protests were trig-
gered by the Bolivian electoral
board’s decision last month to de-
lay the general election for the
second time this year, citing
health concerns. It was supposed
to be held on Sept. 6, but now has
been pushed to October.
Government opponents in Bo-
livia’s working class and rural ar-
eas have accused the country’s in-terim president, Jeanine Añez, of
using the delays to salvage her
sinking election campaign and
step up the persecution of oppo-
nents.
Protesters have called on the
electoral board to re-establish the
previous election date, or at least
guarantee that no further delays
will be made.
“The people are very angry and
very committed,” said Lander
Marca, a local radio worker in Bo-
livia’s coca leaf-growing region ofChapare, an anti-government hot-
bed whose residents have block-
aded the country’s main east-west
highway. “They want to ensure
that their political rights are re-
spected.”
Like dozens of other anti-gov-
ernment activists, officials and
journalists, Mr. Marca was re-
cently detained by security forces
on charges related to violating
public order. He has not appeared
in court and remains under house
arrest nearly four months after
his detention.
The unrest could provide a wel-
come break for the beleaguered
Ms. Añez, by allowing her to shift
the blame for a weak pandemic re-
sponse on the protesters, said
Diego von Vacano, a Bolivian po-
litical scientist at Texas A&M Uni-
versity.
Roadblocks are a common form
of protest in Bolivia, used by the
working class who feel they don’t
have any other way to express
themselves, Mr. von Vacano said.
“In the pandemic, however, this is
a double-edged sword that will be
seen by many as a threat to their
health.”
The country’s mountainous ge-
ography means a few well-posi-
tioned roadblocks can isolate ma-
jor cities and bring the country to
a standstill, a vulnerability that
was exploited by Mr. Morales’s ru-
ral supporters to great effect inthe past.
Mr. Morales, Bolivia’s first In-
digenous president, was ousted
from power in November after a
fraught bid for a fourth term.
Exiled in Argentina, Mr. Mo-
rales continues to evince intense
loyalty among many in Bolivia’s
Indigenous majority, who see him
as a transformative leader who
gave them a political voice for the
first time in the nation’s 200-year
history.
The presidential candidate of
Mr. Morales’s party, Luis Arce, is
leading the polls, raising fears
among the former president’s op-
ponents that he will return to
power after October and take re-
venge on those who ousted him.
In maintaining the protests, Mr.
Morales’s supporters are playing
a high-stakes game that seeks to
destabilize Ms. Añez’s govern-
ment and provoke a violent mili-
tary response that will further sap
her popularity, said Filipe Car-
valho, a South America analyst at
Eurasia Group, a Washington-
based political consultancy.
“Both sides are playing the pan-
demic for electoral gain, adding a
new level of tensions,” Mr. Car-
valho said. Whoever wins will
take control of a highly divided
country in deep recession and few
options to restart economic
growth, he said.Dozens of people block a road in El Alto, Bolivia. The protesters, who support Bolivia’s former president, Evo Morales, say they have set up 70 roadblocks.
STR/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCKNorman Chinchilla contributed re-
porting from Cochabamba, Bo-
livia.
Protesters in Bolivia Block Access to Cities
Unrest Challenging Election Delay and Virus Response Maroons Six Million People
By MARÍA SILVIA TRIGO
and ANATOLY KURMANAEVThe government
threatened force to
quash the blockades.
The Austrian tourist who got a
bit too close to Napoleon’s young-
er sister has apologized. But there
still may be consequences.
The tourist, on a trip to cele-
brate his 50th birthday, was vis-
iting an art museum in northern
Italy last week when he posed
with the statue of a reclining Paul-
ine Bonaparte. Her husband had
commissioned the seminude
sculpture by the Italian artist An-
tonio Canova in the early 19th cen-
tury. It is known as Pauline Bona-
parte as Venus Victrix.
The tourist, as captured on se-
curity camera footage, sat at her
feet and mimicked Bonaparte’s
luxurious sprawl in repose. Some-
one snapped a photo.
By the time he got up, Ms. Bona-
parte had lost some of her toes.
Authorities found the man us-
ing visitor logs at the Gypsotheca
in Possagno. By Tuesday, the man
— whom the museum did not
name — wrote apologetically to
the president of the foundation
that oversees the museum.
He hadn’t realized, the man
said, that the toes had snapped off
the statue, which is a plaster mod-
el for the marble sculpture.
“During the visit I sat on the
statue, without realizing the dam-
age that I evidently caused,” he
said in his letter. The museum,
dedicated to Canova’s work,
posted part of the letter on Face-
book. “I am asking you for infor-
mation on what steps are neces-
sary on my part in this situation,
which is very unpleasant for me
and for which, in the first place, I
apologize in every way.”
There is some discrepancy as to
how many toes the Bonaparte
plaster model lost. In a Facebook
post, the museum said it was two
toes. The Italian police told CNN
that it was three.
The 200-year-old plaster mod-
el‘s marble counterpart resides in
the Borghese Gallery in Rome. Ca-
nova was commissioned to create
the statue around 1805, when the
socialite Pauline Bonaparte was
25 years old. The artist portrayed
her as the goddess of love, holding
the golden apple she had won in a
contest to determine the fairest of
three immortals, according to the
Borghese Gallery.
Vittorio Sgarbi, the foundation
president, said in a statement: “I
appreciate the civic sense of this
citizen, and I take note of his
words of embarrassment for what
happened.”
An Italian court was weighing
whether to press charges, CNN
reported on Wednesday.
The museum said in a Facebook
post that it was making a plan for
the statue’s restoration.
In the art world, there is dis-
agreement over whether posing
for photos at museums should be
considered acceptable behavior.
Some museums ban it entirely.
But major institutions like the Na-
tional Gallery in London have giv-
en in and lifted their bans on pos-
ing with art work.
No one has lifted the ban on sit-
ting on it.Tourist’s Snap
Does the Same
To Statue’s Toes
By JULIA JACOBSJoshua Barone contributed report-
ing.