Hong Kong delivery companies scared about sending ‘banned books’ to mainland China in wake of booksellers case
Case of five missing Hong Kong booksellers casts a pall over what used to be a profitable business
From pornography to Chinese Communist Party scandals, Hong Kong publishers have been delivering “banned books” to the mainland using different means for many years, but petrified delivery companies have recently stopped taking orders in the wake of the missing booksellers’ case.
Since the mysterious disappearances of five Causeway Bay booksellers who specialised in publications critical of the leadership in Beijing, delivery companies have realised that the price to pay for business is too high.
READ MORE: Lee Po, the main actor in the mystery of the missing booksellers, and the five questions to be solved
With their refusal to handle bulk delivery, mainlanders looking for the banned books may have to come to Hong Kong in person and buy them.
“In the past, staff from Causeway Bay Books would wrap the banned books in the covers of love novels. Delivery companies usually charged just HK$10 for each kilo of books delivered. That’s not a lot of money,” a source with knowledge of the delivery process said.
“No companies that I know of would still do deliveries now. They are running a business and the possible price to pay is just too high.”
The source could not imagine how publishers were still able to deliver large quantities of banned books across the border, except by employing money-hungry parallel traders willing to take the risk.
The delivery industry insider‘s revelations came after Gui Minhai, a co-owner of publisher Mighty Current which owns Causeway Bay Books, was accused of ordering his associates to deliver about 4,000 banned books to the mainland since October 2014.