Vanishing Hong Kong booksellers ‘extremely worrying’, says EU as scrutiny on mainland intensifies
Statement calls lack of information about their well-being and whereabouts ‘extremely worrying’
The European Union yesterday broke the silence and urged authorities in the mainland, Hong Kong and Thailand to investigate and clarify the mysterious disappearances of five Hong Kong booksellers.
In a statement issued late on Thursday, the EU said the continuing lack of information about the well-being and whereabouts of the shareholders and staff at Causeway Bay Books, which sells publications critical of the Chinese Communist Party, was “extremely worrying”.
The development came as the house committee of Legislative Council unanimously backed a request of having an adjournment debate at its weekly council meeting regarding the case.
The five – Lee Bo, Gui Minhai, Lui Por, Cheung Ji-ping and Lam Wing-kei – have gone missing separately since October. The latest incident involved Lee, who was last seen in Mighty Current’s Chai Wan warehouse on December 30.
Clues about their whereabouts are scant,
As Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has stated, it would be a violation of the Basic Law if, as media allege, mainland law enforcement agencies had been operating in Hong Kong.
but there has been speculation that the five were detained in the mainland because of their publishing business and that Lee was dragged across the border by mainland agents.
The EU statement said: “As Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has stated, it would be a violation of the Basic Law if, as media allege, mainland law enforcement agencies had been operating in Hong Kong.”
“This would be inconsistent with the ‘one country, two systems’ principle.”
It added that respect for freedom of expression underpins all free societies.
In the house committee yesterday, the pan-democrats warned the incidentwas the most serious since the city’s handover in 1997.
“It is a matter concerning the fate of the ‘one country, two systems’,” said Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan.
“We are not even talking about the democracy fight, but how the mainland law enforcement agencies or their aides have abducted people to mainland illegally for investigation ... the legislature has the responsibility to follow up the case.”
Beijing-loyalist Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, chairman of the house committee, had represented his allies to back the motion, who had all kept silent in the meeting yesterday.
But he warned that such adjournment motion, which could only be moved after finishing all the business on agenda, would not happen so soon unless pan-democrats stopped filibustering against the contentious copyrights amendment bill, which had already been dragged for weeks.
Meanwhile, former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang called on Hongkongers to join the march tomorrow (Sunday) to urge Beijing explaining the whereabout of the five booksellers .
READ MORE: Police mobilise in neighbourhood where missing Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo was last seen
