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.
