Lam Wing-kee, Hong Kong Bookseller Abducted by China in 2015, Dies at 70 in Taiwan
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Lam Wing-kee, the Hong Kong bookseller whose abduction by Chinese authorities in 2015 transformed him into an enduring emblem of defiance against Beijing’s tightening grip on speech, died Thursday evening in Taipei. He was 70.
Taiwan’s official Central News Agency, citing an unnamed source, reported his death but did not specify a cause. The agency said Lam had suffered a cancer relapse last year and was admitted to MacKay Memorial Hospital in Taipei on Tuesday. He slipped into a coma Wednesday and died the following evening.
Lam, who once worked at Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong, relocated to Taipei in 2019, fearing legal repercussions. In 2020, he reopened a bookstore under the same name in the Taiwanese capital, a move that some saw as a quiet act of resistance.
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te offered condolences in a Facebook post, writing: “The passing of Mr. Lam Wing-kee is deeply saddening, but the courage he left behind would not fade. Taiwan will remember that a Hong Kong bookstore worker once told us in the most ordinary yet most steadfast way how precious freedom is and reminded us that democracy requires the efforts of generation after generation to defend it.”
Lam was one of five individuals linked to Causeway Bay Books who vanished in late 2015. The store had sold books and magazines claiming to reveal insider secrets about Chinese leaders and their scandals — a line of work that put them squarely in Beijing’s crosshairs.
Among the five was publisher Gui Minhai, who disappeared from a holiday home in Thailand and was later sentenced to 10 years in China on charges of illegally providing intelligence overseas.
In a dramatic press conference in Hong Kong in 2016, Lam gave a detailed account that directly contradicted official Chinese narratives. He said he was seized by Chinese authorities in October 2015 after crossing from Hong Kong into Shenzhen, on the mainland. Blindfolded and taken on a 13-hour train ride to the eastern city of Ningbo, he was kept under round-the-clock surveillance in a room for five months, with two-person teams rotating shifts. He claimed he was later forced to appear on Chinese television to confess to crimes.
His death comes at a time when both Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have intensified controls over the territory, especially after the massive anti-government protests in 2019. In June, Lam told Central News Agency he had temporarily closed his Taipei bookstore due to health issues, without giving a timeline for reopening.
The broader context underscores a steady erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law. In June, Hong Kong police arrested two people on suspicion of selling seditious publications and receiving funds from foreign political organizations, a move widely seen as a further clampdown on dissent.
Lam Wing-kee’s story — from an obscure bookseller to a symbol of free speech — leaves behind a legacy that continues to resonate in Taiwan and beyond, even as the political tides shift.