Last October five booksellers disappeared. They all sold books about China's Communist party leaders, many would consider them just this side of gossipy. When one the disappeared booksellers turned up back in Hong Kong and decided to hold a press conference explaining the circumstances of his confinement by Chinese security services the story was blacked out on the mainland.
It always kills me when the Chinese government lectures others about all the supposed freedoms enjoyed by Chinese citizens all while those freedoms are being abridged in the name of information suppression.
It always kills me when the Chinese government lectures others about all the supposed freedoms enjoyed by Chinese citizens all while those freedoms are being abridged in the name of information suppression.
China has ordered an apparent media blackout on mainland coverage of a Hong Kong bookseller’s claim he was abducted by Chinese agents amid outcry in the territory and internationally over the case.
Lam Wing-kee made his claims on Thursday evening at a news conference in Hong Kong, stoking fears about China violating individual freedoms and liberty in the former British colony.
Lam, the 61-year-old manager of Causeway Bay Bookstore, is one of five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing in October 2015. All were involved in sales of books about the Chinese Communist party leadership that mainland tourists often buy when they visit Hong Kong.
One of the booksellers, Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizen, is believed to be still detained on the mainland. Others are nominally free, with Lam the first to come forward and answer questions about his disappearance.
Lam has said he spent months in solitary confinement – blindfolded and often handcuffed – after being snatched by a group of men upon entering mainland China in October 2015. He said the men were Chinese agents who forced him to confess to crimes he did not commit.
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