Missing Hong Kong bookseller to give up British passport, denies being kidnapped

Belinda Weber
20:48, Mar 1, 2016
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.

A policeman stands by placards of the missing booksellers that have been placed outside the China liaison office in Hong Kong, on Jan 19, 2016.

Cheung, Lui and Lam were last seen in southern mainland cities before disappearing in October.

He added: "I think it's important to say first that we haven't monitored the Chinese Super League up to this point, but if you're looking at vulnerability or risk assessment I'm not sure a lot of money pouring in is something that would pique our interest".

Their arrests raised fears that Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on the press and the publishing industries, even among those living in the semi-autonomous former British colony.

Finally, Lee reiterated his stance that he needs no help from either Hong Kong or the United Kingdom in this matter.

"I have deeply reflected on what I have done and very much regret the illegal book trading I have carried out with Gui Minhai", Lui Por told Hong Kong's Phoenix Television.

Lee, 65, was the publisher of Mighty Current Media, a Hong Kong-based publishing house popular among mainland tourists for its scandalous books about the private lives of Chinese politicians.

The interview with Lee Bo, broadcast late on Monday, came a day after another man he worked with, Gui Minhai, purportedly confessed to illegally selling thousands of books by mail to mainland Chinese buyers.

The movement has gained support amid growing unease over signs Beijing is tightening its grip on the specially administered Chinese region, which is promised civil liberties unseen on the mainland under the "one-country, two-systems" principle that took effect when Britain ceded control to China in 1997.

One of the other booksellers, Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizen, confessed he had "explored ways to circumvent official inspections in China", in his television interview yesterday.

- TV confessions -The other four booksellers, who are under criminal investigation on the mainland, also appeared on Phoenix Sunday admitting to smuggling illicit books into China in sombre, sometimes tearful interviews.

"After what happened [with the bookstore], I wanted to sneak across the border to mainland China, to resolve whatever issues there were with the company and then secretly go back to Hong Kong", Lee said in the interview.

Gui went missing while in Thailand last October, while Lee disappeared while in Hong Kong in December. He also said he was giving up his British citizenship.

His fellow booksellers, Lui Por, Cheung Chi-ping and Lam Wing-kee, described him as the ringleader of the group.

The U.K. government has been pressing China for information about Lee and said this month it suspected he was "involuntarily removed" from Hong Kong in what it called a threat to the city's autonomy.

Coming in third place was Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous, the radical group responsible for organizing a protest in Kowloon's Mongkok district in early February that descended into a riot and left 130 people, mostly police officers, injured.

Asia Cup 2016: Malik, Akmal turn tables for Pakistan
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Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.


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