Hong Kong bookseller, seized by Chinese authorities, dies in Taiwan
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Lam Wing-kee, a former Hong Kong bookseller who became a symbol of resistance to Beijing’s crackdown on speech freedom after he was seized by Chinese authorities in late 2015, has died in Taiwan, the island’s official Central News Agency reported, citing an unnamed source.
The news agency didn’t give a cause of death but said the 70-year-old Lam had a cancer relapse last year and was admitted to MacKay Memorial Hospital in Taipei on Tuesday. He fell into a coma on Wednesday and died Thursday evening, according to the report.
Lam, who was the manager of Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong, moved to Taipei in 2019 over fears of legal troubles and reopened the bookstore under the same name in the Taiwanese capital in 2020.
“The passing of Mr Lam Wing-kee is deeply saddening, but the courage he left behind would not fade,” Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te wrote on Facebook. “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 people affiliated with Causeway Bay Books who disappeared in late 2015. The store sold books and magazines that were not available in mainland China, including some that purported to reveal secrets about the inside lives of Chinese leaders and the scandals surrounding them.
The disappearances raised concern about Beijing’s growing reach into Hong Kong and the erosion of freedoms in the city, which is part of China but has its own legal system and laws.