Lam Wing-kee (2026)

Their Story

Lam Wing-kee was a Hong Kong businessman and owner of Causeway Bay Books in Taipei, a bookstore first located in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong and known for selling politically related publications. He founded the original Hong Kong store in 1994, locating it on the second floor of 531 Lockhart Road in Causeway Bay. In late 2015, Lam was detained by China for selling content deemed critical of Beijing. After being abducted at the Hong Kong-China border in October 2015, he was transported handcuffed and blindfolded to Ningbo, where he was held in solitary confinement under 24-hour guard and subjected to frequent interrogations about illegally sending banned books to mainland China. After being allowed to return to Hong Kong, he went public with explosive testimony detailing his abduction and months of interrogation by mainland police. In April 2019, Lam fled to Taiwan in response to the proposed Hong Kong extradition bill, and a year later he opened a bookstore in Taipei's Zhongshan district. Lam died at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei from lung cancer, and Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te said Lam's life "bore witness to the value of freedom of expression, and to the fear and suffering inflicted by authoritarian repression."