July 2 (Reuters) – Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee, who fled to Taiwan amid fears of Chinese persecution, has died at the age of 70, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday, citing Taiwanese media.
Lam had sought Taiwanese refuge in 2019 after he was detained by Chinese agents in 2015 while working at a bookshop in Hong Kong that sold works critical of the Chinese leadership.
He was admitted to Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei on Tuesday, but his condition worsened and he fell into a coma, the South China Morning Post cited local media as saying. He was pronounced dead on Thursday evening, the report added.
Last year, Lam disclosed that his lung cancer had returned and advanced to stage four despite initial treatment, the SCMP report said.
Lam’s incarceration was part of a coordinated operation by China’s security apparatus that led to five booksellers disappearing from locations in China, Hong Kong and Thailand in late 2015, and later showing up in Chinese detention where they were forced to make confessions on public television.
The case generated huge controversy and undermined public confidence in China’s commitment to preserving Hong Kong’s freedoms.
Before its closure in Hong Kong after the booksellers’ arrests, Lam’s “Causeway Bay Books” had become a symbol of resistance to perceived Chinese encroachments on Hong Kong’s liberties. Lam’s shop in Taipei bore the same name.
Mass pro-democracy protests in 2019 against a perceived tightening of China’s grip took the financial hub by storm. China subsequently cracked down on the protests and imposed a sweeping national security law to stifle dissent in 2020.
Its last major opposition party disbanded last December, the culmination of Chinese pressure on the city’s remaining liberal voices.
(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Barcelona; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Paul Simao)
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