Bookseller Lee Po turns up in Hong Kong again – and regains his peace of mind
The missing bookseller first turned up in Hong Kong last week, and promptly returned to the mainland
Causeway Bay Books bookseller Lee Po is back in Hong Kong again – and this time a Chinese-language newspaper described him as regaining his peace of mind while publishing two selfies he took.
Headline Daily, a subsidiary of Sing Tao Daily, reported that Lee had returned to Hong Kong at 4pm on Monday for a second time. Then on Tuesday, Lee took a walk in North Point, where he lives.
Missing Hong Kong bookseller Lee Po returns home from mainland China after disappearing last December
“Lee Po wandered around King’s Road ... and then returned home. He acted no differently than a normal Hong Kong person did. It is believed that Lee Po is regaining his peace of mind,” Headline Daily reported.
The newspaper did not explain how it obtained the selfies.
From October last year, five associates of the Mighty Current publishing house and its Causeway Bay Books went missing one after the other. Gui Minhai vanished in Pattaya, Thailand in October. Cheung Chi-ping, Lui Por and Lam Wing-kee went missing on the mainland in the same month. Lee then disappeared from Hong Kong in late December.
Their disappearances sparked fears that they had been kidnapped by Chinese agents, since their companies specialised in books critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
Colleague of Lee Po reveals identity of mystery man who accompanied Hong Kong bookseller Lee Po back to mainland
Last Thursday, Lee finally returned to Hong Kong and asked police to cancel its “missing person” investigation, adding that he had not been kidnapped.
He also said he was giving up his “banned books” business and even urged other businessmen in Hong Kong to give up their businesses as well. Human rights activists said they did not believe Lee was not pressured into making those comments.
Lee then returned to the mainland again the next day, escorted by a man believed to be the one who took over his bookstore in November.
