{"id":23579,"date":"2016-02-29T01:27:58","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T01:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/missing-hong-kong-booksellers-could-be-out-in\/"},"modified":"2016-02-29T01:27:50","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T01:27:50","slug":"missing-hong-kong-booksellers-could-be-out-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/missing-hong-kong-booksellers-could-be-out-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing Hong Kong booksellers could be out ‘in days’"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Several Hong Kong booksellers detained in China could be released for “good attitude” after confessing, reports say.}<\/p>\n

Three of five Hong Kong booksellers missing for months could be released from detention “in a few days”, Hong Kong and Shanghai media are reporting, indicating for the first time that their disappearances were linked to their activities distributing “unlicensed” books in mainland China. <\/p>\n

Hong Kong daily, the South China Morning Post, reported on Monday that Lam Wing-kei, Lui Por and Cheung Ji-ping, of Causeway Bay Books, could be granted “bail” for “good attitude” while awaiting trial in Chinese jails.<\/p>\n

It was unclear if China was planning to send them back to Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

The report said Lam, Lui and Cheung were arrested in Shenzhen and Dongguan on October 17 and 24 last year, and had confessed to their “crimes”.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish national, and Lee Bo, a British citizen, co-owners of the Hong Kong book store involved in the book distribution, are also detained in China.<\/p>\n

Gui went missing while in Thailand last October, while Lee disappeared while in Hong Kong in December.<\/p>\n

They later turned up in jails in the Chinese mainland and issued videotaped confessions, prompting accusations that Beijing had snatched them from Hong Kong and forced them to issue confessions. <\/p>\n

In a video confession, Gui reportedly claimed to have killed one person while driving a car. Lee said he voluntarily returned to China to help in the investigation of Gui. <\/p>\n

Monday’s report said Gui had ordered his three associates Lam, Lui and Cheung to mail 4,000 books to buyers from across different Chinese cities since 2014. <\/p>\n

The booksellers are also accused of altering book covers and mailing them through the regular postal service “to avoid customs inspections”, the report said.<\/p>\n

Critics said they were arrested for selling publications critical of Beijing and President Xi Jinping. <\/p>\n

On February 12, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Lee was “involuntarily removed” from Hong Kong, and accused China of a “serious breach” of the treaty, under which it took control of the city.<\/p>\n

The Joint Declaration is the treaty signed in 1984 between Britain and China safeguarding Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms after Beijing took power in 1997.<\/p>\n

Under the “one country, two systems” principle, Hong Kong retains a high degree of control over its own affairs, including law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\"Critics<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Several Hong Kong booksellers detained in China could be released for “good attitude” after confessing, reports say.} Three of five Hong Kong booksellers missing for months could be released from detention “in a few days”, Hong Kong and Shanghai media are reporting, indicating for the first time that their disappearances were linked to their activities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23579"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23579"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}