A restaurant in Taipei, which backed the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and provided refuge for protesters from the territory, announced its closure Monday, citing financial difficulties.

A Facebook post showed photos of the signboard on the ground in front of Aegis restaurant, less than two years after it was opened by Daniel Wong (???), a Hong Kong lawyer and politician who provided free legal services to demonstrators arrested during the 2019 pro-democracy protests there.

In a post above the photos, it was announced that Aegis was shutting down its physical site, because it did not have enough funds to survive, but will continue its online business.

“Painfully we’ve removed the signboard, and all our efforts are gone,” the post read. “Everything is over … but this is a test that fate gave us. Although we have ended the brick business, however, we will continue to manage our online shop.”

The restaurant opened in Taipei in April 2020 but suffered a huge setback in August this year, when a fire broke out on the premises, destroying all of the equipment and costing the business a huge amount of money in compensation to the building’s owner.

Over the past four months, Aegis said, it has been trying to deal with the aftermath of the fire, including the compensation issue and restoration of the building.

Prior to that, in October last year, the restaurant was forced to close for three weeks because of an act of vandalism, when it was spattered with feces.

Located near National Taiwan University, the restaurant had been offering work opportunities to young Hong Kongers who had fled to Taiwan to avoid a crackdown on participants in the 2019 protesters, and it had become a popular hangout for many Taiwanese supporters of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel