Hong Kong protesters call for release of missing booksellers

A Hong Kong bookseller whose disappearance has inflamed concerns about growing Chinese interference in the city told his wife in a video message that he travelled to the mainland on his own accord, the Sing Tao newspaper reported.

Lee, a British national who disappeared in Hong Kong on December 30, is the latest to go missing.

One of Hong Kong’s leading global bookshop chains has since removed politically sensitive books from its shelves. The disappearance on New Year’s Eve of Lee Bo, a British passport holder, prompted British foreign secretary Philip Hammond to say on Wednesday China would be guilty of an “egregious breach” of Hong Kong’s autonomy if it were confirmed it was responsible for the disappearances. “Who knows if people who have taken part in the Umbrella Movement will be the next to disappear?” said Billy Wu, 43.

The disappearances, and China’s silence, have stoked fears of mainland Chinese authorities using shadowy tactics that erode the “one-country, two-systems” formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its 1997 return to China.

Paul Tang, the owner, told Reuters, that in the event the industry for banned books collapsed in Hong Kong, he expected it to “migrate to other nearby countries” like Taiwan or Japan given the huge sustained demand from Chinese visitors. It sparked concerns of “white terror” regarding whether Lee was abducted in Hong Kong and sent to mainland China through secret channels.

Lee’s wife reported him missing to police but soon withdrew her complaint after receiving a letter reportedly handwritten by her husband telling her he had gone to the Chinese mainland to work with “concerned parties”, according to the BBC.

While careful not to accuse China directly of being behind the disappearances, Mogherini said Friday (8 January) that “it would be a violation of the Basic Law if, as media allege, mainland [China] law enforcement agencies had been operating in Hong Kong”.

Four other employees of Causeway Bay Books and Mighty Current, another publishing house, have disappeared since late a year ago.

The parade began at 2:50 p.m.at the Central Government Complex in Tamar, with protesters walking toward the Hong Kong office of China’s central government.

Gui Minhai, owner of Mighty Current, the publishing house that owns the bookstore, went missing while on holiday in Pattaya in November.

In 2014 tens of thousands of protesters brought parts of Hong Kong to a standstill for more than two months after Beijing imposed restrictions on planned democratic elections for the city’s next leader.

Although Mr. Hammond said Mr. Lee is a British citizen, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared the publisher was “first and foremost” a Chinese citizen and that “it was not necessary for anyone to make groundless speculations”. Lee, however, declined to give specifics at the time.