Exclusive | Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung hints there’s little he can do about detained bookseller – but Stockholm demands more ‘openness’
Swedish deputy minister for finance Per Bolund says easiest way to ‘resolve all the questions that have arisen’ is to let Swedish authorities see Gui Minhai
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying hinted on Monday morning that there is little he can do about the situation with Gui Minhai, the Hong Kong bookstore co-owner who has allegedly surrendered to the mainland authorities over a fatal drink-driving accident from a decade ago – as Gui’s disappearance had not been reported to the city’s police.
Asked about the case on the sidelines of the Asian Financial Forum, Leung said: “The Gui Minhai case has not been reported to the Hong Kong police or the government ... The mainland and Hong Kong media have carried reports on Mr Lee Bo and related cases. We attach a great deal of importance to any information that would help the police and the government to understand the case better.”
Speaking exclusively to the Post at the same event, Swedish deputy minister for finance Per Bolund said Stockholm “is quite concerned about the development”, asking for more “openness” from the mainland authorities.
READ MORE: Missing Hong Kong bookseller says he turned himself in for 2004 drunk driving death on state TV
Chinese-born Swedish national Gui is one of five shareholders and staff of Causeway Bay Books, a store specialising in political books banned on the mainland, who have gone missing since last October.
In a recorded interview broadcast on Sunday night by China Central Television, Gui said he had surrendered to mainland authorities after being on the run since killing a 23-year-old university student while drink-driving in Ningbo, Zhejiang province in 2004.
Watch: Missing Hong Kong bookseller paraded on China's state-run television