RIP 🙏 You may not know his name, but you've definitely heard his story, and Hong Kong's. Lam Wing-kee founded Causeway Bay Books, the Hong Kong shop that sold titles banned in mainland China. In 2015 he vanished into mainland Chinese custody for eight months, one of five booksellers detained that year. He didn't stay quiet. In June 2016 he held a Hong Kong press conference and described being blindfolded at the border, interrogated for months, and pressured to hand over customer records. His account stunned Hong Kong and made headlines worldwide. In 2019, fearing extradition under Hong Kong's proposed fugitive bill, Lam fled to Taiwan. A year later he reopened Causeway Bay Books in Taipei, crowdfunded, with flowers from then President Tsai Ing-wen. Days before the opening, a man threw red paint on him. He rebuilt anyway. Lam never liked being called an exile. "I'm just someone who came to Taiwan to open a bookstore," he said. He died Thursday in Taipei at 70, cancer having spread to his heart. President Lai Ching-te said the courage he leaves behind "will not disappear." Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said Lam was long detained by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Causeway Bay Books affair, and chose to expose it rather than stay silent. His bookstore, reborn in Taipei, became what officials called a symbol of freedom.