Thousands of people yesterday took to the streets of Hong Kong in a reprise of anti-China protests of more than a year ago, demanding to know the whereabouts of five men connected with Hong Kong publisher Mighty Current (巨流) and its bookstore, Causeway Bay Books (銅鑼灣圖書), who are critical of Beijing’s leadership.
Other publishers and book vendors are unnerved by the mysterious disappearances and in some cases, they have pulled books critical of Beijing’s leaders from their shelves.
In three bookstores that sell political books, owners declined to be interviewed, citing fear of retaliation from Beijing.
Photo: AFP
Hong Kong is constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and autonomy from Beijing for 50 years, but the series of disappearances has led to suspicions that Chinese law enforcement officers were ignoring the regulations.
Lee Bo (李波), 65, a shareholder of Causeway Bay Books and a British passport holder, went missing from Hong Kong late last month, although his wife has withdrawn a missing persons report, saying he traveled to China voluntarily to assist in an unspecified investigation.
Four other associates of the publisher have previously been unaccounted for since late last year.
Dressed in yellow and holding yellow umbrellas, the hallmark of anti-China protests that crippled parts of the territory in late 2014, the protesters demanded to know the whereabouts of the missing men.
“Today’s Lee Bo is you and me tomorrow,” the protesters shouted.
The demonstrators gathered outside Hong Kong government headquarters — the scene of pro-democracy protests in late 2014 — carrying banners that read: “Release Hong Kong booksellers now.”
The government said in a statement it was “firmly committed to protecting the freedom of expression and freedom of publication.”
“The rule of law is the cornerstone of our society,” it said, adding that police are investigating the cases and have sought assistance from Chinese authorities.
Protest organizers said about 6,000 people took part.
“Nobody is safe in Hong Kong now,” said Bao Pu (鮑樸), who published the secret memoirs of former Chinese Communist Party general secretary Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), who was purged after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
His father, Bao Tong (鮑彤), was the most senior Chinese official jailed over the protests in Beijing.
As of Thursday, more than 500 publishers, writers, booksellers and members of the public had signed an online petition pledging to: “Not fear the white terror and uphold the principle of publication freedom.”
White terror is a term used to describe periods of political persecution by authoritarian regimes.
Britain and the US have expressed concern over the disappearances.
At a recent news conference, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) skirted a direct question on whether the men were under Chinese detention.
The Guangdong and Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, and the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing, have not responded to repeated requests for comment.
However, China’s state-run Global Times wrote in an editorial that the missing men were exercising an “evil influence” in China through their political books.
It went on to say that it was “reasonable” for law enforcement agencies to “circumvent the law when they seek cooperation from an individual for investigation.”
Political gossip books and exposes on Chinese leaders have been a lucrative niche market for Hong Kong booksellers catering to Chinese visitors accustomed to pervasive censorship of sensitive literature at home.
However, now, some stores have distanced themselves from such books.
At the PageOne bookshop chain, a young sales assistant said that some of these books had been pulled recently.
“This is the company’s decision,” he said. “I am not very clear about it. We only have history books now.”
A PageOne spokesperson said the firm would not comment.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS