Who is Lam Wing-kee? Hong Kong bookseller who defied Beijing dies at 70

Taipei: Lam Wing-kee, the former Hong Kong bookseller who became an international symbol of resistance to Beijing's crackdown on free speech after his disappearance in 2015, has died in Taiwan at the age of 70, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency.

Citing an unnamed source, the agency reported that Lam suffered a relapse of cancer last year and was admitted to MacKay Memorial Hospital in Taipei on Tuesday. He reportedly fell into a coma on Wednesday and died on Thursday evening.

No official cause of death has been announced.

Who is Lam?

Lam worked at Hong Kong's Causeway Bay Books, a bookstore known for selling publications about the private lives and alleged scandals involving senior Chinese leaders. He was one of five people linked to the bookstore who disappeared in late 2015, triggering international concern over freedom of expression in Hong Kong.

According to Lam, he was detained by Chinese authorities after crossing from Hong Kong into Shenzhen in October 2015. He later revealed that he had been blindfolded during a 13-hour train journey to Ningbo, where he was held under constant surveillance for five months.

In 2016, Lam publicly challenged the official Chinese account of the incident, telling a packed press conference in Hong Kong that he had been forced to make a televised confession while in detention.

Another of the five missing booksellers, publisher Gui Minhai, disappeared from his holiday home in Thailand before later being sentenced to 10 years in prison in China on charges of illegally providing intelligence overseas.

Fearing further legal action following the political crackdown in Hong Kong, Lam relocated to Taiwan in 2019. He reopened Causeway Bay Books in Taipei in 2020, turning it into a symbol of free expression and support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.

In June this year, Lam said he had temporarily closed the Taipei bookstore because of deteriorating health and was unable to say when it would reopen.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te paid tribute to Lam in a post on Facebook.

"The passing of Mr Lam Wing-kee is deeply saddening, but the courage he left behind would not fade," Lai wrote.

"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's death comes as Beijing and Hong Kong authorities continue to tighten national security measures following the mass pro-democracy protests of 2019.

Last month, Hong Kong police arrested two people on suspicion of selling seditious publications and receiving funds from foreign political organisations under the territory's national security law.