Following his disappearance, Lee sent a fax to a colleague, claiming he had traveled to China “by my own means, to cooperate with an investigation carried out by relevant department”, and said he was “good” and all was “normal”.
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Lee Bo, 65, a major shareholder of Causeway Bay Books, “vanished” on Wednesday after he went to fetch books from his warehouse in the city, Lee’s wife told Hong Kong media.
While there is no proof that the five were spirited away by the Chinese authorities, the nature of the books they sold has led many to suspect that the continuing crackdown on civil society in mainland China is spreading into Hong Kong and has prompted the Chinese authorities to illegally apprehend Lee, a native of the city.
“If we have one territory, two policing systems, then this is really asking for trouble, and it is a total violation of the Basic Law”, he said. There were earlier reports about three other Hong Kong residents who were last seen in Shenzhen.
“The freedom of the press and freedom of publication and freedom of expression are protected by laws in Hong Kong”, he said, according to an official transcript of his remarks, adding he was paying close attention to the case. Only law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong have the legal authority to enforce laws and to take necessary actions in Hong Kong.
An opinion piece published in the Global Times newspaper, a state-run tabloid, said it was meaningless to engage in political speculation about their disappearance.
Violated Speaking on local radio, Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau said the incident had caused fears that the principle of “one country, two systems” by which the former British colony has been governed since its return to Chinese rule in 1997, had been violated.
“The Hong Kong government cares about its people’s wellbeing… police are working on this case”, she told reporters.
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.
Fears of China’s creeping control are reflected in a new film “Ten Years” that imagines what Hong Kong will be like in a decade. Leung and other officials have said there is not enough known to point a finger at anyone who may have been involved in what may have been abductions. In one episode, the death of a hunger striker protesting for independence from China prompts an old woman to self immolate. In a YouTube video posted on Saturday, the hackers announce that they would begin attempts to take down Communist Party of China websites. “The law protects the rights, including the freedom and safety of everybody in Hong Kong”.
The chief editor of a Hong Kong publishing house who has been critical of the Chinese government has become the fifth member of staff to have gone missing from the firm since October.
Gui is also a Swedish national.
Beijing has so far made no comment on the disappearances, which many believe are an attempt to silence Gui Minhai’s publishing company, Sage Communications. But the police have not responded to questions about this.
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“In Hong Kong, the only people who can exercise the power of the law are our legal enforcement agencies of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government”, he said.
