The Hong Kong Police Force is investigating the reported disappearance of people related to a bookstore in the territory, Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) said.
Lee Bo (李波), a major shareholder of Causeway Bay Books, which specializes in reading material critical of the Chinese Communist Party, went missing and his wife reported his disappearance on Friday afternoon, the South China Morning Post said yesterday.
The disappearance of Lee, 65, comes weeks after four people related to the bookstore and its owner vanished, the newspaper said.
The Hong Kong government cares about the well-being of its people, whether they are in the city or traveling abroad, Lam told reporters yesterday after attending an event, according to a statement from her office.
She declined to comment further, given the police investigation.
Gui Minhai (桂民海), the owner of Mighty Current, the publishing house that owns the bookstore, turned up in Thailand after leaving town, the South China Morning Post reported, without saying how it obtained the information.
The bookstore’s manager, Lam Wing-kei (林榮基); the publishing house’s general manager, Lui Bo (呂波); and the publishing house’s business manager, Cheung Jiping (張志平), were reported missing on Nov. 5 last year, the report said.
The bookstore, established in 1994, is said to be popular among tourists from mainland China, as they can buy political material banned across the border, the newspaper said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)