Bookseller disappearances raise concerns about ‘safety and security’ of foreigners in Hong Kong, says German consul
Nikolaus Graf Lambsdorff says the saga is for him a human rights issue involving freedom of expression, and a ‘convincing explanation’ of what happened is needed
Amid international concern about the missing bookseller saga, Germany’s top envoy in Hong Kong expressed concern over the “safety and security” of foreigners in the city and pressed for a “convincing explanation”.
Nikolaus Graf Lambsdorff, the country’s consul general to Hong Kong and Macau, characterised the disappearance as “a human rights issue” even though Lee Po, who disappeared while in Hong Kong in late December, claimed that his return to the mainland was voluntary. He returned to Hong Kong on March 24.
Missing Hong Kong bookseller Lee Po returns home from mainland China after disappearing last December
The German envoy said: “[The case] concerns the safety and security of people living in Hong Kong and, in our case, foreigners including Germans living in Hong Kong.
“We would like to see this case resolved and see a convincing explanation of what has really happened,” the diplomat said. “So far, we don’t have that.”
Lee and four other associates of Mighty Current publishing house and Causeway Bay Books went missing one after the other from October last year.
Lee and two others recently returned to Hong Kong and asked the local police to stop investigating their cases. Another was apparently bailed.
The last associate, Gui Minhai, a Swedish national, remained on the mainland. Lee was a British passport holder, a status, he told media while on the mainland, he would give up.
Graf Lambsdorff said nationality was only one of the reasons for the case’s sensitivity to EU members.
“For us, it’s a human rights issue,” he said. “It is ... an issue of freedom of speech which is guaranteed here.”
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On Saturday, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, that the British government was not convinced that Lee was free of any duress or constraints.
Some Hong Kong officials and lawmakers also raised concern among human rights advocates when they called for harsher measures against “bogus” asylum claimants.
Graf Lambsdorff noted that Germany and Hong Kong shared a similarity in being an attractive place in the eyes of those seeking a better life.
He shared the concern of people debating what to do about the situation, saying: “Hong Kong is after all just one city, not one big country.”
