In the Chinese city-state of Hong Kong, parliamentarians protested for the office of the representative of the government in Beijing. They demand clarity about the disappearance of a bookseller.
The 65-year-old Lee Bo disappeared last week on the night of Wednesday to Thursday. He is a major shareholder in Causeway Bay Books, which sells books criticizing the government in Beijing. Lee is the fifth employee of the bookstore that is missing.
One of the members of parliament says to news agency AP that he is afraid that the bookseller was abducted by the Chinese government. He thinks Lee is smuggled to mainland China, where it is interrogated by the police.
Causeway Bay Books sells many books that deal with Chinese government officials. The publications often contain details about the private lives of politicians. Beijing would bookstore therefore keep a close eye.
Over the past two months, Lee disappeared alongside four other booksellers, including Gui Minhai, the owner of the publishing company that owns the bookstore. Gui, a Chinese with Swedish nationality, was working on a new book when he suddenly disappeared.
Book Dealers in Hong Kong say that the Chinese Communist Party's growing political influence in the city-state. They fear that press freedom is being restricted in Hong Kong.
NOS.nl/ © AFP
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