UK ‘deeply concerned’ over Lee case

He said he was “assisting an investigation” but did not elaborate.

“Citizens who sell politically sensitive books were not supposed to be suppressed by any threats of “disappearance” or imprisonment with the existence of freedom of press and speech”, she said.

“We think that if the information is true, it is a deeply troubling case and it will have serious implications about the deterioration of freedom of expression in Hong Kong”, said Amnesty International’s China researcher Patrick Poon. “And that would be extremely damaging for Hong Kong because that is precisely the difference which has enabled the Western world to develop more progressively than China”.

Softer methods were also used: Sources say there were at least two instances where publishers were offered payments of up to HK$1 million (S$184,000) by Chinese security agents to stop publishing certain material. His wife, Sophie Choi, however, withdrew a missing persons report for her husband on Monday.

The fax was published by Taiwan’s Central News Agency, seemed rather odd, given that Hong Kong police have no record of Lee passing through immigration, and his wife is already on the record saying that he was not carrying any travel documents.

“The Hong Kong government needs to get to the bottom of this very quickly, give a full and proper account to the people of Hong Kong, and put people’s minds at ease”, she said.

Leung did not comment on the latest developments, including the letter allegedly written by Lee that was released to the media last night, and the withdrawal of the request for help by Lee’s wife.

“He must have been forced to go under duress or intimidation”, Mr Ho told the BBC. “So that’s what has led to our observation that he was kidnapped and smuggled to China”.

Mr Ho, a customer at the firm’s bookshop in Causeway Bay, said he had heard from other store regulars that the publisher was going to launch a book about President Xi Jinping’s ex-girlfriend.

In a related instance, the Swedish national Gui Minhai, the owner of the publishing house, Mighty Current, that owns the bookstore, disappeared while on holiday in Thailand in October. “He said, ‘How can anything happen in Hong Kong?” Thailand was perceived as being vulnerable to Chinese interference.

Richard Choi, of the Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, said there are fears that the five men may be in extrajudicial detention.

The authorities in Hong Kong are likely to be anxious that the disappearances may play into the hands of pro-democracy politicians in a year that will see a bitter contest between them and their pro-government counterparts in elections in September for seats in the Legislative Council, knows as Legco.

There’s conjecture that mainland law enforcement employees had individually taken from Hong Kong four of the five. It should be left to the local enforcement agency. “We feel that Hong Kong is not Hong Kong anymore, it is named as Hong Kong only”. “That we are under the protection of a completely different system”, said Mr Ho.

Leung told reporters that the government is “concerned” about the case, and will be following up on it.

When Britain handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997, it was promised that the city’s way of life would be preserved in an arrangement known as “One Country, Two Systems”, which will expire in 2047.

In an editorial, it said the case had been “sensationalized” in Hong Kong, arguing there was no point in “political speculation” while the investigation was continuing.