Alarm Grows In Hong Kong Over the Fate of a Missing Publisher

“Our view is that the Basic Law, the Joint Declaration, the principle of one country, two systems means that in a question of any breach of Hong Kong laws, the question must be settled in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong judicial system”, Hammond told reporters. The territory retained independent control of its own police force. This is due to Hong Kong’s status as a specially administered region of China.

“We have reason to believe he was politically abducted and illegally transferred to the mainland”, Ho said, revealing his belief that the company was about to launch a book about Xi’s former girlfriend.

Evidence for this is circumstantial.

It added that it expected Chinese authorities would “continue to make every attempt to make sure that the surroundings where the media and publishers run in the Hong Kong… supports complete and open coverage”.

The shares not already controlled by Cheng’s companies is worth about US$2.1 billion based on New World China’s last closing price. They did not allege whether or not Lee had been located. Besides Lee’s call to his wife Saturday, Gui has contacted his wife, who lives in Germany, through Skype several times, the last time on December 24, Bei said.

Lawmaker Albert Ho of the Democratic Party said Sunday the city was “shocked and appalled” by Lee’s apparent disappearance, the fifth person in recent months to vanish from the bookstore. In October a year ago, four of their colleagues disappeared: Mighty Current majority shareholder Gui Minhai vanished during a holiday in Thailand; Mr Lu Bo, the general manager, and Mr Lin Rongji, the bookstore manager, disappeared in Shenzhen; and retail manager Zhang Zhiping disappeared in Dongguan city near Shenzhen.

“And then very probably he left through some channel without going through the immigration counter”.

Of the four other men who disappeared, one is also a Swedish citizen. The author of the note states that he went to China of his own volition and is “working with the concerned parties”. Books such as those sold at the shop in Causeway Bay are popular among mainland tourists who appear to care little that much of the “inside information” is dubiously sourced.

Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Joakim Edvardsson said Monday that the government was “very concerned” that a Swedish national had disappeared.

But a commentary published on January 5th by Global Times, a newspaper published in Beijing, accused the bookshop of selling works that “viciously attacked” the mainland’s politics and said Mr Lee was “well aware” of the “harm” they were causing across the border. “Chinese authorities should investigate these reported disappearances and immediately clarify the situation”.

Politicians and activists, meanwhile, said the disappearances were conducted by Chinese authorities, indicating that Beijing was trying to suppress the civil rights of Hong Kong, which belongs to China but maintains its own legal, political and economic systems.

The China unit, which listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 1999 at HK$9.50 a share, has residential, retail, office, and hotel projects in more than 20 Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, according to its website. But he said there was “no indication” of outside involvement in the case.

Lee’s wife said she had received a phone call from her husband telling her that he was safe, but he did not provide any more information.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing alongside his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Mr Hammond said he had raised concerns about Mr Lee’s whereabouts.