Hong Kong leader says no indication Chinese agents kidnapped bookseller

Hong Kong activists on Sunday (January 3) protested outside Beijing’s representative office in the Chinese-ruled city over the disappearance of five booksellers who specialise in publications critical of the Communist Party government.

Ho, a customer at the publishing firm’s bookshop in Causeway Bay, said he had heard the company was planning to launch a book about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s former girlfriend, Sky News reported. “A Mr Lee Bo, who is a British passport holder, has gone missing and we have urgently enquired both of the Hong Kong authorities and of the mainland Chinese authorities what if anything they know of his whereabouts”, he said.

Mighty Current specializes in sensationalistic books about Chinese political scandals and other sensitive issues that mainland publishers are forbidden from covering.

“In the era of the Internet, their impact is not limited to Hong Kong, but also leaks into the mainland, and becomes a genuine problem facing the country”, it said.

Some see these latest disappearances as a sign that China is using shadowy tactics to undermine Hong Kong’s independence.

But Hong Kong’s leader said there was “no indication” that the booksellers were taken to mainland China, CNN reported.

Hong Kong’s top leader Leung Chun-ying said Monday (Jan. 4) that it would be “unacceptable” and a violation of the Basic Law that governs the semi-autonomous city if mainland Chinese authorities were enforcing laws in Hong Kong.

A Foreign Office (FCO) spokesman said: “We are deeply concerned by reports about the disappearance and detention of individuals associated with the Causeway Bay Books bookstore in Hong Kong”, the statement said, referring to the affiliated shop. Last week, Lee Bo went missing mysteriously.

When the four other publishers disappeared last autumn Lee had said he was a shareholder in the Mighty Current publishing company.

The Hong Kong authorities later also confirmed that Lee did not have any record of having exited the island.

(Central News Agency)Mr. Chan, I have something urgent to take care of, and can not disclose the details to the public, so I returned to the mainland my own way to cooperate with concerned parties in an investigation, and it might take a while.

When Lee vanished last Wednesday, he reportedly did not have his travel permit for mainland China with him, triggering speculation that Chinese security agents entered Hong Kong to abduct and spirit him there.

The case has sparked consternation in Hong Kong where freedom of expression is legally protected under the “one country, two systems” principle. “It might take a bit of time. If exterior bodies apply the law in Hong Kong, it is a breach”, he said.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, on a visit to Beijing, said he pressed officials for information on Lee.

If Lee was indeed kidnapped by mainland Chinese secret police, the judicial independence of the city may have been compromised.

“I started looking for him when he didn’t come home for dinner that night at around 7pm”, she said. Because they are all related to the same company, the Hong Kong Police have consolidated the investigation.

Chinese officials have not commented on the case, but state-run Global Times said that the bookshop was making a “profit by political provocation”.