Thousands Of Hong Kong Protesters Gather To Demand Release Of Booksellers

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Hong Kong to demand the release of a group of political booksellers they suspect were abducted by Chinese security forces and are being held in mainland China.

Five Hong Kong booksellers – Gui Minhai, Lee Bo, Lui Bo, Cheung Ji-ping and Lam Wing-kei – who specialised in books criticising China’s Communist party elite have vanished since October.

Beijing has repeatedly refused to comment directly on the case but there is widespread suspicion that the men’s apparent detentions – in Thailand, southern China and Hong Kong – are designed to halt the publication of salacious tomes about the private lives of top party figures.

One source told the Guardian Gui and Lee had been preparing to publish a book about Chinese president Xi Jinping when the disappearances began.

On Sunday afternoon demonstrators gathered outside Hong Kong’s government headquarters – the scene of last year’s umbrella movement pro-democracy protests – carrying placards and banners that read: “Release Hong Kong Booksellers Now!” and “Against political persecution!"

Albert Ho, a Democratic party lawmaker who helped organise the march, said demonstrators wanted the booksellers’ “immediate release”. They were also demanding an explanation from Beijing about the apparent “kidnapping” of Lee Bo, a British passport holder who vanished in Hong Kong earlier this month.

“They owe us an answer,” said Ho. “We are legitimately entitled to be notified about the status of Hong Kong citizens who are being detained in China.”

Sin Chung-kai, another Democratic party politician, said the scandal left the ‘one country, two systems’ model, under which Hong Kong has operated with far greater freedoms than the mainland since handover in 1997, “on the verge of collapse”.

“It is totally terrifying,” Sin told broadcaster RTHK.

The booksellers’still unexplained disappearances have sparked international condemnation.

On Friday the US said it was “disturbed” by the unfolding scandal.
 

The EU said the continuing lack of information about the booksellers’ welfare and whereabouts was “extremely worrying”, adding: “Respect for freedom of expression underpins all free societies.”

During a two-day visit to China last week, British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said Beijing would be guilty of an “egregious breach” of Hong Kong’s autonomy if the involvement of its agents in Lee Bo’s snatching was confirmed.