‘I want to tell the whole world – Hongkongers will not bow down before brute force’
Eight months after his disappearance, bookseller Lam Wing-kee returns to the city and reveals what really happened after he was intercepted in Shenzhen
“I want my freedom back” – that was the thought in Lam Wing-kee’s mind throughout his ordeal.
A short trip to see his girlfriend in Shenzhen last October had ended up with the Hong Kong bookseller being taken 1,100km away to Ningbo in Zhejiang province, where he was confined to a room for the next five months through a cold winter in the northeastern Chinese city, under watch 24 hours a day.
It all began when he was intercepted at the Shenzhen border on October 24 last year. Without anyone telling him what he had done wrong, he was escorted to a police station in Shenzhen and detained overnight. His travel documents and identity card were seized.
They told me that I was just under residential surveillance, but in reality I couldn’t even take half a step outside
“That night, I sat on a chair for criminals the whole night and didn’t sleep a wink,” he recalled on Thursday. “It was around 7am [the following] morning – very early – when people from the police station and the people who took me away came over with breakfast. Then ... we got on a northbound train.
“I was covered up the whole time. They blindfolded me and put a cap on my head, and basically bundled me up,” Lam said. “The ride was 13 to 14 hours long. Then I found out that they had taken me to a place in Ningbo.
“We got off and they took me by car to a place 45 minutes away ... to a large building. They took me up to a room in the second floor. Then they changed my clothes.”
Alone and feeling helpless, he agreed to sign a document giving up his rights to seek legal advice and contact his family.
“They told me that I was just under residential surveillance, but in reality I couldn’t even take half a step outside. I could only look at the sky.”
He spent five months there, being questioned by officers up to four times a week, sometimes for over an hour at a time.
As a “free man in Hong Kong”, Lam described his detention by the mainland authorities as being like a “farce”.
“I couldn’t believe this could happen to me. It was very surreal. I thought I was in another world and even hoped my situation was a dream and not reality. As a Hongkonger, I am a free man. I did not commit any crimes but I was locked up for no reason for five months.
There was a director and there was script. I had to memorise the lines and read them in front of TV
“You know what. You could become crazy after being locked up for a long time And they are prepared for that ... the toothbrush they gave you is very small and tied with a nylon thread. When you brushed your teeth, an officer would hold the another end of the thread, and once you finished you had to return the toothbrush to him. Because they fear you will attempt suicide by swallowing the toothbrush.”
His whereabouts were unknown to the Hong Kong public until February, when Hong Kong police were informed by the Guangdong public security department that Lam and two bookstore associates – Lui Por and Cheung Chi-ping – had been under investigation for undisclosed “illegal activities on the mainland”.
In late February, Lam appeared on Phoenix TV revealing details of the bookstore’s methods of shipping “banned” books to the mainland. Lam dismissed this as a staged confession.
“There was a director and there was script. I had to memorise the lines and read them in front of TV. If I could not recount the lines, there would be a re-take,” said Lam, adding that he had no choice but to agree to do the TV confession.
If I don’t speak up ... then there is no hope for Hong Kong
In April he said he was moved to Shaoguan in Guangdong province, where he spent his last months of detention until he was freed on Tuesday. He also said he had been treated better there.
“But for me personally, I did not want compensation. The only thing I wanted was my freedom.”
Lam was allowed to return to Hong Kong on Tuesday on condition he would surrender to mainland investigators by Thursday a database of readers of Causeway Bay Books. He did not do so.
“If I don’t speak up, being the least of the five, then there is no hope for Hong Kong. I had to pluck up a lot of courage, thought about it for two nights, before I decided tell you all what happened, as originally and completely as I could.
“I also want to tell the whole world. This is Hongkongers’ bottom line: Hongkongers will not bow down before brute force.”
