Taiwan News (TAIPEI) — A man has been arrested for allegedly vandalizing with feces a Taipei restaurant that was established to provide Hongkongers living in exile with work.
Around noon on Friday (Oct. 16), a masked figure dressed in black entered the Hong Kong protest-themed restaurant Aegis (保護傘) with a bucket of what was said to be chicken excrement. The intruder proceeded to splatter the bucket's contents in the kitchen, on the counter, and on a female employee before fleeing the scene.
After viewing footage from CCTV cameras placed around the city, police tracked down and arrested the suspect, a 25-year-old male surnamed Mo (莫), early Saturday morning (Oct. 17) in New Taipei City's Xizhi District, CNA reported. He is being investigated for destruction of property, intimidation, and public insult.
Da'an Precinct police told Taiwan News that Mo claimed he had previously eaten at the restaurant and that he staged the attack because he was dissatisfied with his meal. Police said they were dubious about this explanation and that they are pressing on with their investigation.
Aegis opened just six months ago on Xinsheng South Road in Taipei's Da'an District.
It was founded by pro-democracy Hong Kong attorney Daniel Wong Kwok-tung (黃國桐) to employ young people from Hong Kong struggling to make ends meet as they live and study in the Taiwanese capital. Wong gave pro bono legal assistance to hundreds arrested during Hong Kong's anti-extradition bill protests.
The incident on Friday was the latest in a series of attacks on Hongkongers in Taiwan.
In April, three men with alleged pro-Beijing sympathies ambushed Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee (林榮基) with paint just days before he opened the Taipei iteration of his bookstore. Last October, Hong Kong singer and activist Denise Ho (何韻詩) was similarly doused with paint by the chairman of the pro-unification Chinese Unity Promotion Party at an anti-CCP rally.
