Four men who work for a Hong Kong bookseller that publishes sensational stories about the private lives of Chinese leaders have gone missing. The four all live in Hong Kong and work for Sage Communications, which is known for releasing scandalous autobiographies written by the former mistresses of high-ranking officials.
According to Radio Free Asia, a news group funded by the United States (oooh, fishy!), Sage Communication’s Swedish owner Gui Haiming has been missing since mid-October when he went to Thailand for a holiday. It is thought he could have been detained in Thailand and sent to mainland China.
Meanwhile, the company’s general manager Lu Bo, Sage Bookshop manager Lin Rongii and another employee Zhang Zhiping fell off the grid around the same time while visiting family members in mainland China.
Speaking to UK newspaper the Guardian, Maya Wang, a researcher for Hong Kong’s arm of Human Rights Watch, said: “This incident is very concerning as it comes after the sentencing to 10 years of Hong Kong publisher Yiu Manting last year, and the trial last week of Hong Kong journalists Wang Jianmin and Guo Zhongxiao.” In the latter case, Wang was referring to two Hong Kong residents who were charged with running an illegal business in China after they mailed copies of a political magazine to people on the mainland.
An anonymous publisher in Hong Kong also said that he and his counterparts feel under pressure to self-censor having received threatening calls from people claiming to be authorities in the mainland.
Photo: Day Donaldson
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