Hong Kong Bookseller Moves to Taiwan

Lam Wing-kee at Hong Kong Airport on Thursday, leaving for Taiwan

The Hong Kong government is intent on passing the extradition bill, allowing the extradition of fugitives to any place the city has an agreement with, including the mainland, Taiwan and Macau.

It's a controversial bill that worries a lot of people, including Lam Wing-kee.

You may remember him as one of the five booksellers at Causeway Bay Books who was kidnapped across to the mainland in late 2015 and reappeared back in Hong Kong in June 2016. At the time he claimed security agents in Ningbo, Zhejiang province had put him through eight months of "mental torture".

Lam resurfaced in June 2016 to tell the media of his detention

He was the only one to speak openly in Hong Kong about his experience, but now with the extradition bill coming up, Lam has decided to move to Taiwan, which he did on Thursday.

Opposition lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching, who accompanied Lam to the airport, said yesterday that Lam, 63, decided to leave a month ago and open a bookshop in Taiwan.

"He is extremely worried and convinced he is at the top of the list of those who could be extradited," Mo said. Lam, who was still wanted across the border, had "absolutely no faith in the mainland's legal system," she added.

Someone close to Lam said he had the blessing of the Taiwanese authorities. However it is unclear if his plans to open a bookshop will succeed or not.

Lam was one of five booksellers snatched and taken to China

This is not his first attempt at opening a bookshop there. Despite two years of planning, a deal to open a bookshop fell through last June. His partners pulled out after the wife of a Hong Kong investor complained of threats from mainland authorities.

Nevertheless, lawmaker and former secretary for security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said Lam's concerns were unfounded, since selling books was not illegal in Hong Kong and could not trigger extradition across the border.

"I really don't understand what's the basis of his worry," she said.

However Mo said the Chinese authorities could easily set up Lam by charging him with another crime.

Surely Lau would know that, or she has no idea what really goes on across the border?

In any event, we wish Lam the best of luck, but if he fails to set up his bookstore again, where will he go?

Hong Kong on Trump's Radar?

Now that Trump is President, how will he really deal with China, Hong Kong?

I was up late last night on my mobile, on Twitter and seeing people's reactions to Donald J Trump being inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States.

Almost everyone on my Twitter feed was horrified of having a reality TV star, billionaire, and businessman who has been accused of sexual harassment, of not paying bills and being bankrupt several times take over the Oval Office.

Senator Marco Rubio is concerned about Hong Kong rights

Beijing will be nervous to see what Trump will do -- he has threatened to slap a 45 percent tax on Chinese imports as part of his "American first" slogan. And can he really get companies to come back to the United States without raising prices for good and services so high that customers balk at paying them?

He may lay off questioning China about its human rights, but it seems Florida senator Marco Rubio, who is co-chair of the bi-partisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, has Hong Kong on his radar.

A few days ago Rubio said he is looking forward to reintroducing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

"America must show leadership and support these values in our foreign policy," he said in an email through his spokesman.

The bill was proposed following the incident of the five missing booksellers at Causeway Bay Books in 2015 and were detained by the mainland authorities without any legal representation or notice to their families.

The missing booksellers incident sparked a new proposed law

And so the bill proposes punitive measures against any government officials in Hong Kong or the mainland responsible for suppressing basic freedoms in the city.

The law would require the US president to identify persons responsible for the surveillance, abduction, detention or forced confessions of booksellers and journalists in Hong Kong or other actions suppressed basic freedoms, and to freeze their US-based assets and deny them entry into the country.

It's an interesting proposal, but would it work in reality? How can one prove where the orders came from for the authorities to detain the five booksellers? We still don't really know. And what if they don't have American assets or care to visit the US?

Regardless, it's interesting Hong Kong is on Trump's radar, and it might be either amusing or embarrassing having him speak out on the behalf of 7 million residents.

But hey -- any attention is good attention, right?

Bookseller Free from Police Protection

After almost three months, Lam is now free from police protection

Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee is a free man -- well free from the shackles of round-the-clock police protection.

He had asked for it in early July when he felt people were following him since he came back to the city in June.

But now he believes the worst is over and says it's time to live a normal life again.

Lam was one of five booksellers who had been kidnapped when he crossed the border from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. He was detained for several months and then came back to the city, because his minders wanted him to collect the hard disk from the bookstore that contained the names of people who had bought the salacious books about senior Chinese officials.

He told the media about his kidnapping and detention in China

However, Lam changed his mind and decided to go public with his plight, revealing his experiences of being detained in the mainland and how his minders received orders straight from the top.

It was then that he believed his safety was compromised and lived in a secret location. But now he's tired of it, and perhaps because the Legislative Council elections are over that Lam feels he should be OK now.

Or is he?

"I can't live a normal life under round-the-clock protection. I had to stay at the flat all the time and so I don't have the freedom to walk around," he said. "Now that the incident [abduction] has started to die down, I want to live a normal life again."

Lam promises to protest against injustices when they happen

The police had given him a phone and were in contact with him daily to make sure he was safe. Now that 24-hour protection has been withdrawn, they will be in touch with him once a week.

Now that he is basically a free man, Lam vows to continue taking part in social movements and urged others to do the same.

"I will do what every Hongkonger should do, and that is to come out at times of injustice," he said. "I will come out and fulfill my responsibility as a Hong Kong citizen because I have a responsibility to help the next generation.

"One or two years later, I hope that Hong Kong will still be a place where we can all enjoy the freedom of speech."

Is he saying we won't have freedom of speech much longer?!

Does he know something we don't?

More Questions Than Answers

Lam Wing-kee (in the hat) with Albert Ho (right) at the march this afternoon

The weather was erratic again today and I almost left my flat without taking an umbrella.

When I got to the bank, the bank teller turned around and saw it had begun to pour. "Did you bring an umbrella?" he asked.

I didn't want to wait around, so I trudged up the hill through the rain in flip flops to the gym and luckily it was a short walk, but my feet were soaked.

Soon afterwards it stopped raining.

But then it started again about an hour later.

Lam speaks to the protesters in Causeway Bay

I worried that it would rain for the scheduled march to protest against Beijing's alleged suppression of free speech following bookseller Lam Wing-kee's revelations of how he was detained for eight months on the mainland.

But Hong Kong people really do care about what is happening to our city -- some 6,000 of them braved the threat of rain this afternoon to march from where the Causeway Bay Books shop used to be to the liaison office in Western in three hours.

Leading the charge were Lam and lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan, whom Lam contacted when he had second thoughts on returning to the mainland with the hard disk from Causeway Bay Books.

Lam's revelations this week have shocked and frightened a lot of people in Hong Kong. Even more shocking is today's reported statements from former secretary for justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie.

Quoting Article 6 of the Chinese Criminal Law, she warned that Hong Kong people could risk being detained on the mainland if they had broken mainland laws in whole or in part in Hong Kong.

Excuse me? That's completely news to me, and I'm sure the rest of us 7 million people in Hong Kong.

Elsie Leung now tell us the laws are not what we thought

Has this been in effect since 1997? If so, no one told us that.

Therefore, according to China, Lam broke the law by mailing banned books from Hong Kong to the mainland.

"Hong Kong people should not assume they would not be arrested for acts which contravene the mainland's laws when they return to the mainland, simply because of their capacity as Hong Kong residents," she added.

Leung also said Article 7 of the same document states that mainland law is applicable to any citizen of the People's Republic of China who commits a crime outside the territory.

"It's my understanding that, whilst the Chinese Criminal Law does not apply in Hong Kong, the extra-territorial reach of Article 7 does extend to Hong Kong," she said.

It's chilling -- absolutely chilling to hear this now, almost 19 years later.

Again -- how come we only found out about this now? And we thought all along it was "one country, two systems", but in fact it isn't what we thought.

Who was the one who lulled us into thinking everything would be OK until 2047? Where were the British in negotiating this? And what about the Hong Kong experts who were involved in drafting the Basic Law? How come no one told us this was in the law?

Too many questions, and not many answers.

Very troubling indeed.

Telling the World -- For the Record

Lam Wing-kee told the media his ordeal on the mainland as a warning

Yesterday one of the missing booksellers who came back this week, Lam Wing-kee, plucked up the courage to tell Hong Kong media -- and the world -- that what we feared all along is true.

He gave a long detailed statement about how he was going to visit his girlfriend in Shenzhen, but was detained after crossing the border, and taken to a police station where he had to forfeit his travel documents. The next morning he was given breakfast then put on a train to Ningbo.

All along, Lam kept asking those who had captured him what he had done wrong and no one would answer. He was questioned and then given papers to sign with two clauses -- promise not to contact his family and not to contact a lawyer.

He said he was questioned about his role in Causeway Bay Books and why he mailed books to the mainland. He replied that mailing books to the mainland wasn't illegal in Hong Kong.

Lam was then kept in a small padded room for several months, watched by six groups of two people 24 hours a day. While he was fed meals, he cleaned his teeth with a toothbrush that had a string tied to it that a guard held on to, to prevent him from trying to swallow it and commit suicide.

Interestingly Lee Po denies that he was kidnapped to China

At no time was he allowed to step outside or contact anyone.

Probably because he was on good behaviour, he was later taken back to Shaoguan in northern Guangdong province. Lam kept negotiating with them until finally they let him go back to Hong Kong on condition he bring back the bookstore's hard drive with the names of all the customers who bought books.

But Lam didn't return and is refusing to go back. For this decision, which he agonized over for two sleepless nights, he has sacrificed his relationship with his girlfriend to reveal to the world the Chinese government's true colours.

"This is not just about me. This is about the freedom of Hong Kong people. The Chinese government has forced Hong Kong people into a dead end," he told the media.

"I just want to pass on a message: we here, including Hong Kong journalists, we Hong Kong people are all in the same boat. [The disappearances] can happen to you too for sure. If we don't speak up, if I don't speak up being the last of the five, then there is no hope for Hong Kong."

Lam said he had to be "very courageous" and that "I also want to tell the whole world. This isn't about me, this isn't about a bookstore, this is about everyone. This is the bottom line of the Hong Kong people This is Hong Kong people's bottom line -- Hong Kong people will not bow down before brute force."

Everyone was gobsmacked by Lam's revelations, that they can detain anyone they wished for as long as they wanted, without following rule of law. Already pundits are predicting this latest news will impact pro-Beijing political parties' votes in the upcoming Legislative Council elections.

Who will have any trust in the Chinese government with such testimony?

Even more bizarre is that Lee Po denies Lam's statement that Lee told him that he was kidnapped from Hong Kong.

And now the Chinese government is very angry that Lam has told everything, and claims that he has broken mainland laws as a Chinese national.

So does that mean they're going to kidnap him from Hong Kong? Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying says "Relevant authorities in China are authorized to handle the case in accordance with the law".

Then basically "one country, two systems" does not exist according to China's eyes, that Hong Kong residents do not follow rule of law in the city, but Chinese law? Since when did that happen? We were not given any notice of that.

We were told we would follow "one country, two systems" until 2047, and yet the missing booksellers' case shows this is not true at all.

Who misled us?

The Chinese government feels it can detain anyone it likes, regardless if he or she has a foreign passport, and prevent them from having contact with loved ones and lawyers.

This extra judicial attitude is alarming and as Lam says, the world should take notice.

He was very courageous to speak out, knowing the consequences of his actions.

The Hong Kong government has been frighteningly quiet on the issue, only reiterating that it was illegal for outside authorities to operate on Hong Kong soil without permission.

But are mainland authorities considered "outside authorities"? and did they get permission from the Hong Kong government?

Acting Chief Executive John Tsang Chun-wah was mum, and stonewalled when asked questions regarding Lam's safety in the city.

His unwillingness to seem to want to demand answers from Beijing was a clear indication that Hong Kong appears complicit, or at least a silent partner in all of this.

Hopefully Lam will be safe in Hong Kong, but one never knows...

Beijing's Scare Tactics

Lee Po seems to praise the mainland whenever the media ask questions

We're all still shaking our heads over how the missing bookseller incident came about and how it ended is still a mystery.

Whenever Lee Po was accosted by local media, he would say such pro-China statements -- coming from someone who used to publish books criticizing the Communist Party -- that they were too bizarre to accept.

In the latest twist to the story, a publisher who knows Lee Po, has come out to say that mainland agents had visited him three decades ago when he went back into the publishing business.

Publisher Lau Tat-man says mainland agents visit regularly

And during the height of the missing booksellers incident, the same agents visited Lau Tat-man three times in the span of a month.

He claimed they were from the Guangdong State Security Department and were investigating his connection with Causeway Bay Books.

"They told me the public security department was very angry about the banned books business and that I could be the mastermind behind the five booksellers in question and take advantage of their downfall to expand my business," Lau said.

Lau says he's speaking out now because his wife has been detained by Dongguan authorities since October 24 -- the same day and place one of the booksellers, Cheung Ping-chi, went missing. Lau hasn't heard from her since, nor have the mainland agents given him any updates about her.

The connection between him and Causeway Bay Books is interesting. Gui Minhai, who allegedly returned to the mainland to stand for charges of drunk driving many years ago, used to write for Lau on a freelance basis.

Gui and Lee also poached Lau's distribution staff, Lui Por and Cheung.

Mainland agents asked Lau about Causeway Bay Books

"I told the agents, they [Lui and Cheung] took all my business contacts and distribution data when they joined Gui and Lee. How can you accuse me of being behind their business?" he said.

The mainland agents contacted Lau again in mid-January, saying the Causeway Bay Books sellers had revealed information against Lau, and that he had expanded his banned books business (because Causeway Bay Books was not in operation).

"I told them, 'why don't you kidnap me to the mainland to sort things out?'," he recalled, adding that he'd been banned from getting a wui heung jing or return home permit to go there.

Hopefully media pressure will help Lau be reunited with his wife. But what did he do to have mainland agents visit him regularly, and detain his wife up from late October until now?

These stories just confirm Hong Kong people's fears about the mainland, making them even more concerned and worried about their future in the city, while getting no reassurances from the local government nor Beijing.

Is it not surprising then that the film Ten Years won best picture at last week's Hong Kong Film Awards, that there are more localist groups running for seats in the upcoming Legislative Council, that people get sensitive when simplified Chinese is used in the city?

What is Beijing's strategy to win the hearts and minds of Hong Kong people? Scaring them is hardly effective...

Missing Bookseller Saga a Page Turner

Why did Lee Po sign over the running of the bookstore to a mystery man?

We can't even keep up with what's been happening with the missing bookseller saga -- it just keeps going in such bizarre directions that even the most creative spy thriller novelist couldn't make this up.

The latest? The two booksellers who came back to Hong Kong earlier this week? They literally came back for a few hours and then went straight back across the border again.

Lui Por came back last Friday, and Cheung Chi-ping on Sunday, both telling local authorities they didn't need any help from the Hong Kong government or the police and then returned to the mainland, according to dissident poet Bei Ling, who is a friend of Lee Po and trying to do his own investigation.

Two booksellers returned to HK then went back to Shenzhen

"Their return to Hong Kong was only to tell police to drop the case on them, nothing else," Bei said. "They returned to Shenzhen in a hurry probably because that's where they have to be on bail. Besides, that's where their families are."

And then we find out Lee Po had signed over the running of Causeway Bay Books for six months to a mysterious man named Chan.

In the agreement signed in November, Chan would cover the operating costs and pay the HK$39,000 monthly rent. Lee signed it because he needed someone to cover the costs because the bookstore was losing HK$20,000 a month.

But according to Woo Chih-wai, one of the last employees to work at the bookstore until all five booksellers disappeared, Chan didn't seem to want to keep the business and wanted to shut it down.

Woo Chih-wai is concerned about the booksellers and the store

Woo found it troubling that Lee's wife Sophie gave Chan the keys to the Chai Wan warehouse even though the property was hers, and she was willing to give up the bookstore and warehouse just to get her husband back.

Chan didn't seem to care much for the business, according to Woo, who said he didn't stay long in the store, and had a young woman run it, who didn't seem to care much for the books either.

Woo said on the day Lee went missing, the three of them were supposed to have dinner, but Chan didn't show any concern, but the following day said the store would not operate much longer.

The mystery continues to baffle us, mostly because we can't even predict what's going to happen. We want the saga to end, though the effects will reverberate Hong Kong for a long, long time.

Evidence of Contradictions

Lee emailed Gui's daughter to tell her what may have happened to him

The big story today was the revelation in an email that bookseller Lee Po feared that his colleague Gui Minhai had been abducted by mainland agents, only to deny this later.

In an email dated November 10, Lee wrote to Gui's daughter Angela about her father Michael's disappearance.

Subject: Michael is missing

Hi Angela,

I am Paul Lee [Po], Michael's business partner, who had lunch with you and Michael last year in Hong Kong.

In the email Lee sounded concerned for Gui Minhai's fate

I write to you concerning the whereabouts of Michael. I wonder if you have known that he has been missing for more than 20 days, we fear that he was taken by special agents from China for political reasons.

We last talked to Michael by email on 15 October, and after that day, nobody could contact him. He was then staying in his apartment in Thailand. According to [Gui's wife]'s words told by the watchman of the building, he left the apartment with several men who claimed to be his friends.

Since we feel [Gui's wife] is hesitating and is not doing anything at the moment, and it's very little we can do to help him because we are not his next of kin. I then think of you, perhaps you can do something, and there are a lot of Michael's friends [who] are ready to help if you need them.

Do tell me what you think and what you want us to do.

Best,

Paul Lee

The email contradicts what Lee has said to Hong Kong authorities and on state television. He wrote a letter to his wife Sophie Choi Ka-ping, blaming Gui for his predicament and describing him as a "morally unacceptable person" who had a "complicated personal history".

Up until now, the Hong Kong government has maintained there was no evidence of cross-border law enforcement being undertaken over the disappearance. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has said such acts of law enforcement by mainland authorities in Hong Kong would be unacceptable as it would go against the Basic Law that protects the city's freedoms.

Meanwhile Lee's wife ordered the destruction of some 45,000 books that were critical of the Communist Party of China, in the hopes it would hasten the release of Po. But it seems like nothing has happened.

The publication of this email affirms the public's skepticism of what Lee said after his abduction to the mainland.

However, this may make it even harder for the remaining booksellers to come back. It's a sad prospect, but at least we know Lee knew what he was getting himself into, and seems like he too was scared.

One Freed, Four to Go

CW left: Lee Po, Gui Minhai, Lui Por, Cheung Chi-ping and Lam Wing-kee

The plight of the missing booksellers continues to raise eyebrows with breaking news tonight that one of them has returned to Hong Kong.

Lui Por is the general manager of Mighty Current, the publishing house that specializes in books critical of the Communist Party of China.

He returned today through Lo Wu immigration check point and local authorities were alerted, who then waited for him at his Tai Wai home.

In a statement released by the force, the police "met with Lui Por who returned to Hong Kong from the mainland this morning. Lui Por requested police cancel his missing person case and stated that he did not require any assistance from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government or Police. He refused to disclose other details".

Lui Por as he appeared on state television on Monday

Lui hadn't been seen since October until Monday when he and his three colleagues appeared on state television to say Gui Minhai ordered Lui and his two other associates to deliver some 4,000 books across the border since October 2014.

They would cover the books with a romance novel cover and then wrap the books in black nylon to avoid screening detection.

One wonders what kind of psychological state Lui is in and will he even seek help to deal with his ordeal of " being disappeared" for about five months.

Our next question is when the other three, including Lee Po are released and how they will be released.

Experts believe Gui could be jailed for running an illegal business in China, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. But if he is convicted of other crimes, he could be jailed for much longer.

It is frightening how people are silenced by intimidation, and it seems Lui has been told to keep quiet for his own good. While we are relieved he is back, we may never know more about his time being detained, and how he dealt with being disappeared by Chinese authorities for so long.

More "Confessions" from Missing Booksellers

In a Phoenix TV interview, Lee Po says he willingly returned to the mainland

Things are getting weirder in the case of the missing booksellers.

Six weeks after Hong Kong police requested to meet with one of the five, Lee Po, who runs Causeway Bay Books, a police officer and immigration officer finally saw him face to face, at a guest house in an undisclosed location at Lee's request.

He told the pair he went to the mainland of his own free will, that he had not been abducted, but refused to elaborate. He even reiterated he was free and safe in the mainland and that he was helping with an investigation involving another missing bookseller, Gui Minhai.

Lee repeated his request for the police to end their investigation into his case and that he didn't need any help from the Hong Kong government. He said he would return home once the investigation was over.

Then yesterday the three other missing booksellers appeared on state television, the first time they were seen since they were reported missing in October.

CW top left: Gui Minhai, Lui Por, Lam Wing-kei, Cheung Chi-ping

The three made confessions on TV, admitting to "operating an illegal business" on the mainland.

Phoenix Television reported that Gui had allegedly ordered his associates -- Mighty Current general manager Lui Por, Causeway Bay Books manager Lam Wing-kee and Lui's assistant Cheung Chi-ping -- to mail 4,000 unauthorized books to 380 buyers in 28 mainland cities and provinces since October 2014.

The booksellers allegedly opened a bank account on the mainland to receive payment from mainland customers.

Nevertheless Lui, Lam and Cheung could be granted bail pending trial and return to Hong Kong soon due to their "good attitude", the Phoenix TV report said.

Gui also appeared on television, wearing the same grey jacket he wore in his first appearance, admitting to drunk driving and allegedly killing a young woman in 2003.

This time Gui said he and the three others studied ways to smuggle books across the border, including wrapping the covers with other books and then packaging them in black nylon bags to make it hard for the authorities to X-ray the books.

He added the books also escaped detection because they were loaded into trucks carrying other goods.

Causeway Bay Books manager Lam also said the books they produced were fabricated.

"The contents are compiled from information downloaded from the internet or from magazines. They created rumours and bad influences in the society," Lam said on TV.

The Chinese authorities are making the story more and more bizarre. They say the end is in sight for three accomplices once they go through some kind of legal process, but what about Lee and Gui? When will they be allowed to return to Hong Kong?

Even better Lee has said that he will renounce his British passport. Really? Has the Chinese government offered him permanent residency and a hukou because he has "special talents"?

Skeptical Hong Kong people continue to be shocked and appalled by the latest developments. As we've said before, the longer the Chinese authorities keep these five booksellers, the greater our distrust of Beijing...