U.K. Presses China for Detail on Missing Hong Kong Publisher

The U.K. government is pressing China for information about a Hong Kong-based publisher and British passport holder who disappeared last week from the former colony, while China warned against speculating over the missing man’s fate.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on a visit to Beijing that Lee Bo -- the publisher of books critical of China’s ruling Communist Party -- should be tried in Hong Kong if accused of any offense. “In a question of any breech of Hong Kong laws the question must be settled in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong judicial system,” he said.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said at the same briefing Tuesday that Lee was “first and foremost a Chinese citizen.” China doesn’t recognize dual citizenship. Wang didn’t give any information about what might have happened to Lee after he vanished from Hong Kong. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Hong Kong affairs are China’s internal affairs. “No foreign country has the right to interfere,” she said in a video broadcast by the BBC.

Lee, part owner of Causeway Bay Books, was reported missing Friday by his wife, who said her last contact with him was from a telephone number from Shenzhen, across the Chinese border. His disappearance came weeks after four other men affiliated with the bookshop also went missing. The incident is fueling concerns that tactics used to limit dissent on China are being exported to the former British colony.

“Before he himself, his relatives, Hong Kong and central government make official statements, it’s not necessary for anyone to make groundless speculations,” Wang said.

British Citizen

The U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement Tuesday that “one of the individuals is a British citizen,” and requested the assistance of Hong Kong and Chinese authorities in tracing the individual. Many people born in Hong Kong when it was still a colony are British overseas citizens, allowing them the right to a passport and consular assistance, but not to live or work in the U.K.

Hong Kong police are also pressing their mainland counterparts for information about the 65-year-old bookseller, who was last seen at a warehouse used by the store on Hong Kong Island. The disappearances also prompted Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, to call a news conference Monday, during which he expressed concern about the case and reaffirmed that only local authorities could enforce the law under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework that led the U.K. to return the city to China in 1997.

“The policy of the Chinese central government toward Hong Kong remains unchanged," Wang said, when asked about whether the bookseller was detained. "We will continue to uphold the principles of ‘one country two systems,’ Hong Kong people administrating Hong Kong, and a high degree of autonomy.”

Democracy Protests

Concerns about encroachment on Hong Kong’s freedoms under President Xi Jinping contributed to the student-led democracy protests that paralyzed parts of the city for months in 2014. Since coming to power, Xi has embarked on a campaign to tighten the party’s grip that has included secret detentions and convictions for spreading information deemed dangerous.

Lee’s bookstore was popular among tourists from China as a source of often salacious books about the country’s elite banned on the mainland.

Lee’s wife approached local police on Monday and withdrew a request for help.Taiwan’s Central News Agency also published a handwritten letter said to be faxed from Lee to a bookstore colleague. In it, he said he took his “own way” to China to assist in an investigation that might take some time.

‘Evil Ways’

China’s state-run Global Times said Tuesday the fax was proof that claims of abduction by Chinese law enforcement agents were wrong. “Opposition activists are making their utmost efforts to push Hong Kong society towards evil ways,” the editorial said.

Leung has said that the police were continuing their investigation. Attempts to reach Lee’s wife were unsuccessful.

“The freedom of the press, and freedom of publication, and freedom of expression are protected by laws in Hong Kong,” Leung had said Monday. “Only legal enforcement agencies in Hong Kong have the legal authority to enforce laws in Hong Kong.” Hong Kong’s legal system is based on British law.

Disappearances are not unheard of in China and several finance industry executives have gone missing in recent months amid probes into last summer’s stock market rout. Hong Kong residents have also been vulnerable. Yim Fung, Hong-Kong based chairman and chief executive officer of Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd., was unreachable for five weeks until he reappeared on Dec. 23. He was assisting Chinese authorities with an investigation, according to company filings.

Of the four other men who disappeared, one is also a Swedish citizen. Gui Minhai, a co-owner with Lee of the publisher Mighty Current, disappeared from his apartment in Thailand.

Swedish police are investigating Gui’s disappearance, with the country’s embassies in Bangkok and Beijing working on the case, said Anna Ekberg, a press officer with Sweden’s Foreign Ministry.