Lam Wing-kee, the Hong Kong bookseller whose 2015 disappearance and detention in mainland China drew international attention and who later became a symbol of resistance to Beijing’s reach into Hong Kong, has died at the age of 70.
Lam died on 2 July 2026 at a hospital in Taipei after a long battle with lung cancer.
Born in British Hong Kong in December 1955, Lam founded Causeway Bay Books, a shop known for selling politically sensitive publications about mainland Chinese leaders. In October 2015, he vanished along with four colleagues in what became known as the Causeway Bay Books disappearances. Chinese authorities later confirmed he had been detained in connection with a case involving fellow bookseller Gui Minhai.
Lam spent eight months in mainland custody, much of it in solitary confinement under constant guard, before being allowed to return briefly to Hong Kong. Rather than comply with instructions to keep silent, he held a press conference in June 2016 and described his abduction at the border, his blindfolded transport to Ningbo and the scripted television confession he had been made to deliver. His decision to speak out, at considerable personal risk, made him one of the most recognisable faces of Hong Kong’s resistance to mainland pressure.
In 2019, as Hong Kong’s proposed extradition bill raised fears he could be sent back to the mainland, Lam relocated to Taiwan. A year later he reopened Causeway Bay Books in Taipei’s Zhongshan district, successfully crowdfunding $100,000 in a single day to support the new shop. Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen sent flowers to mark the opening, a gesture of solidarity that underscored how far his story had travelled. He went on to apply for permanent residency in Taiwan, building a new life while continuing to speak out on issues of freedom and human rights, including voicing support for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.
Lam Wing-kee’s courage in speaking publicly about his detention, at a time when doing so carried real risk, left a lasting mark on the global conversation around press freedom and civil liberties in Hong Kong.