Hong Kong officials to resume talks with mainland on detention notification system
Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok will lead a government delegation to Shenzhen for the second meeting with mainland officials on improving the protocol in the event a resident is arrested across the border
Hong Kong and Beijing officials will meet for the second time on ways to improve the mechanism to report the detention of local residents across the border in Shenzhen today, with the inclusion of all law enforcement agencies into the system expected to be on the agenda.
The first meeting, which was held on July 5 amid public outcry over the mysterious disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers accused of selling banned books on the mainland, resulted in an agreement that the two sides would in future summarise the nature of allegations against residents held in either jurisdiction within 14 days, and that more agencies should be involved in the process.
But pan-democratic lawmakers told the Post on Wednesday that Hong Kong officials must press their mainland counterparts to come clean on what happened to the five booksellers.
In a statement issued Wednesday evening, the government announced that Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok would lead a government delegation to Shenzhen for the second meeting with mainland officials on improving the notification mechanism.
The Hong Kong delegation is expected to meet vice minister of public security Chen Zhimin and representatives from the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and other departments.