Hong Kong police also said in a news release late Monday that they had met another person linked to the Mighty Current case, the editor Lee Bo, at a guesthouse in the mainland, where Lee told them he was voluntarily assisting a Chinese investigation into Gui but refused to disclose other details.
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Lee, a British and Hong Kong citizen, was the fifth bookseller to go missing from the Causeway Bay Bookshop and Mighty Current publishing house responsible for producing salacious books critical of leading political figures in China, when he disappeared in December.
Sources said Lee and Gui returned to the mainland to help in an investigation into missing confidential documents relating to national security.
LONDON, March 1 The British government said on Tuesday it had not been granted access to a Hong Kong bookseller and British passport holder who disappeared a year ago.
When asked whether the police will stop investigating the incident after Lee Bo asked for the case to be closed, John Lee said that Lee Bo can request many things, but the police have already said they would follow up on the matter.
He added: “I think it’s important to say first that we haven’t monitored the Chinese Super League up to this point, but if you’re looking at vulnerability or risk assessment I’m not sure a lot of money pouring in is something that would pique our interest”.
He admitted that all of the books that Gui had published about the mainland had been compiled carelessly and some even included material that was totally fabricated. “I deeply acknowledge my mistakes and am willing to be penalized”.
The report said Lam, Lui and Cheung were arrested in Shenzhen and Dongguan on October 17 and 24 past year, and had confessed to their “crimes”.
It isn’t clear if Gui or the others were coerced into making their statements.
The high-profile hiring of top players for outlandish sums has suddenly put the Chinese Super League on the map at a time when President Xi Jinping is pushing hard to turn China into a footballing power.
“The government, political parties, politicians and mainstream media have depicted us as rioters, but what you call rioters got 66,500 votes”, Leung said.
His supporters believe the TV interview was done under duress.
Choi said the Alliance doesn’t accept the accounts of the men’s activities given in the Phoenix TV report.
The movement has gained support amid growing unease over signs Beijing is tightening its grip on the specially administered Chinese region, which is promised civil liberties unseen on the mainland under the “one-country, two-systems” principle that took effect when Britain ceded control to China in 1997.
One insider who declined to be named said the case has sent shock waves through the city’s once-freewheeling publishing industry, which is now reeling under a chilling effect.
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Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA’s Cantonese Service, and by Xin Lin for the Mandarin Service.
