Leung Chun-ying confirms Beijing talks over notification mechanism for Hongkongers detained in China
Announcement of justice and security ministers’ one-day delegation to the capital comes more than two weeks after booksellers’ revelations of eight-month detention
Hong Kong’s justice and security ministers will make a whirlwind visit to Beijing today to open talks with mainland officials on how to fix their cross-border system of mutual notification that has been thrown in doubt by the bookseller controversy.
Confirming the Post’s report about the trip, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said the local delegation would discuss improvements to the communication mechanism and learn details about the case of Lam Wing-kee, the bookseller who disappeared last year and returned home recently, claiming he had been held without due process on the mainland for eight months.
The Hong Kong side was kept in the dark for months when Lam and four publishing associates vanished last year, raising doubts about the reciprocal notification system in place since 2001.
“It will be a comprehensive and in-depth review of the existing mechanism which has been in use for more than 10 years,” Leung said.
A notification unit under China’s Ministry of Public Security has to inform its counterpart under Hong Kong police if any of the city’s residents are detained anywhere on the mainland.