Hong Kong unsettled by case of 5 missing booksellers

Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Sunday said that they will press the government for answers after a fifth employee of a publisher specialising in books critical of mainland China’s leadership went missing.

Legislator Albert Ho said the city was “shocked and appalled” by the disappearance of Lee Bo. Like the four others who have disappeared in recent months, Lee is associated with publisher Mighty Current. While there’s been no official word on what happened to the five missing people, Mr Ho told reporters that it appears their disappearances are linked to the publisher’s books.

“From the available information surrounding the disappearance of Mr Lee Bo and his partners earlier, we have strong reason to believe that Mr Lee Bo was probably kidnapped and then smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation,” Mr Ho said. It’s not uncommon in mainland China for company executives and dissidents to be detained for lengthy periods, but the disappearances are unprecedented in Hong Kong and have shocked the city’s publishing industry.

Mr Ho believes Chinese security officers kidnapped five publishing company employees possibly because of a planned book about the former love life of President Xi Jinping. “We have a reason to believe he was politically abducted and illegally transferred to the mainland,” he said. Ho, a customer at the publishing firm’s bookshop in Causeway Bay, said he had heard from other store regulars that the company was about to launch a book about Mr Xi’s former girlfriend.

“To my knowledge... The book concerns the story about the girlfriend... (from) some years ago,” he said. “There were warnings given to the owners not to publish this book. This book has not yet gone to print, but probably it has something to do with this book,” Mr Ho added. Lee’s wife said Saturday her husband told her he was “assisting in an investigation” in a phone call after he failed to return home for dinner Wednes-day. A few dozen protesters marched to Beijing’s Liaison Office Sunday to demand information about Lee.