Lee Po signed over running of Causeway Books to mystery man before going missing with other Hong Kong booksellers

The identity of the mysterious man who signed an agreement with Causeway Bay Books owner Lee Po to run the store for six months has come under the spotlight after a store worker revealed that the man wanted to shut down the shop as soon as Lee disappeared.

Woo Chih-wai, 75, who worked at Causeway Bay Books until five associates vanished last year, said the man in question, Chan Hin-shing, acted strangely the day Lee disappeared. He also found it troubling Lee’s wife, Sophie Choi Ka-ping, gave Chan the key to the store’s Chai Wan warehouse after Lee disappeared, even though the warehouse is her property. Woo said Choi even told him that as long as her husband could come home, she was willing to give up the bookstore and the warehouse.

Woo, author of about 120 books, said: “[Chan] very seldom came to the bookstore. And every time he came, he just stayed for five minutes.”

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But on December 30 Chan came to the store at around 2pm and stayed the whole day. Chan, whom Woo said was in his 30s, came to the store and asked Woo for advice on how to make it profitable again. He told Woo he would like to have dinner with both him and Lee that night.

Lee went missing later that day, and the dinner never took place.

On the day Lee went missing, his wife Sophie Choi Ka-ping called Woo at around 7.30pm and said that she could not find her husband.

Soon afterwards, Chan told Woo:“Looks like dinner won’t happen tonight. We’ll do it another day.”

A day later, Chan told Woo:“This is a serious matter. The store won’t be operating any longer.”