Washington urges central authorities to end ‘charade’ of its account of what happened to Lam Wing-kee and his associates
DANNY LEE, TONY CHEUNG, OWEN FUNG AND SHIRLEY ZHAO
UPDATED : Friday, 17 June, 2016, 3:49pm
Lam (centre) with lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan on Thursday in Tamar detailing his abduction and detention on the mainland. Photo: EPA
A recently returned Hong Kong bookseller’s explosive account of his abduction and detention on the mainland has elicited calls for local authorities to follow up the matter with Beijing and strengthen protections for the city’s residents.
Speaking on RTHK on Friday, Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun said Hong Kong authorities must follow up on Lam Wing-kee’s account, contending their communication channels with mainland authorities were “dysfunctional”.
Lawmaker James To Kun-sun. Photo: Nora Tam
“The list of authorities includes public security, customs, immigration officers and others, but now Lam said he was detained by a ‘Centralised Investigation Team’,” To said. “We wouldn’t know if there are other teams under the central government too.”
“The Hong Kong authorities must ask Beijing to inform them if any Hong Kong resident is held under official custody,”
JAMES TO KUN-SUN, DEMOCRATIC PARTY LAWMAKER
“The Hong Kong authorities must ask Beijing to inform them if any Hong Kong resident is held under official custody,” he said.
The lawmaker said Lee’s account of the incident showed that the “one country, two systems” principle had been trampled upon “because mainland law was used to judge whether a Hong Kong resident’s action here was legal”.
To stated Lam should seek help from Hong Kong police and tell them what happened to him.
In Washington, two high-profile lawmakers called for an end to what it called a “charade” relating to China’s account of the missing booksellers.
US senator Marco Rubio, a former Republican presidential candidate hopeful, and US congressman Chris Smith, who co-chairs the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said the actions of the Chinese authorities placed doubt on “one country, two systems” and raised“serious” economic and security implications.
US senator Marco Rubio. Photo: AP
Rubio and Smith said Lam on Thursday “confirmed what was long suspected”, namely that Chinese authorities were behind the abductions of the booksellers and trampling upon freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong.
“These abductions were illegal and have serious economic and security implications and call into question the future viability of the ‘one country, two systems’ model,” the officials said in a statement given to the Post. “The charade must end and Gui Minhai should immediately be allowed to return to Hong Kong and his family.”
Lawmaker Ip kwok-him. Photo: Sam Tsang
Late last month the committee heard testimony from Angela Gui, a daughter of Gui’s. At the hearing she called for the international community to challenge Beijing and accused mainland agents of abducting her father, who disappeared in Pattaya, Thailand, in October last year.
However, pro-Beijing lawmaker Legislative Councilsecurity panel chairman Ip Kwok-him, declined to say whether he or local authorities should follow up on Lam’s account.
Yet Ip, a local deputy to the National People’s Congress – the mainland’s legislature – stated it was against the Basic Law for mainland law enforcement officials to operate in Hong Kong and that authorities there needed to respect and protect suspects’ rights.
As for whether bookseller Lee Po was, as Lam claimed on Thursday, taken against his will last year from Hong Kong to the mainland, he said the matter could only be confirmed by Lee himself.
Ip, who belongs to the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said Hongkongers needed to judge for themselves whether Lam’s account was credible. But he added that the government should consider what he said and ascertain whether he needed help.
“If [Lam] breached mainland laws in his businesses with the mainland, he needs to be aware that the laws are different between the mainland and Hong Kong,” the Legco member said.
Michael Tien Puk-sun, a local deputy to the National People’s Congress, told the Post he planned to write to the body and ask it to come clean on four questions: the legal basis for detaining Lam for five months; Lam’s claim that his confession was staged; whether it is illegal to mail banned books from Hong Kong to the mainland, as Lam said authorities there told him; and whether Lee’s journey to the mainland in March contravened the Basic Law.
Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun. Photo: Dickson Lee
On Thursday, Lam said Lee told him that he was taken away from Hong Kong last year. Tien said Lee should clarify whether this was true.
Outside Bejing’s liaison office in Hong Kong on Friday, around 40 people held a rally in support of Lam. Members of pro-democracy groups Demosisto and Democracy Groundwork attended, including leading voices of the Occupy movement Joshua Wong Chi-fung and Agnes Chow Ting.
Demosisto member Oscar Lai Man-lok carrying a newspaper featuring a photo of bookseller Lam Wing-kee outside Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong. Photo: Felix Wong
Chants of “Never back down! Defend Hongkongers’ freedom” went up as they marched there from Western Police station on Hong Kong Island.
“Lam Wing-kee risked his life and even his family’s safety to come out to speak the truth during these dark times to defend Hongkongers’ dignity and values,”
NATHAN LAW KWUN-CHUNG, DEMOSISTO
Demosisto’s Oscar Lai Man-lok threw a copy of a banned book and a petition letter over the office’s gate after no representatives came out to receive the items.
Nathan Law Kwun-chung, also of Demosisto, told those gathered: “Lam Wing-kee risked his life and even his family’s safety to come out to speak the truth during these dark times to defend Hongkongers’ dignity and values. As Hongkongers who are facing less pressure, we also have to speak up. We cannot let him face this on his own.”
Demosisto’s protest was soon followed outside the office by a Democratic Party rally.
Party lawmakers including To, Helena Wong Pik-wan and Wu Chi-wai tied black ribbons on barriers outside the office to voice their discontent with the mainland’s treatment of the five booksellers.
Wong said that, throughout the months-long saga, local authorities “had not been on the side of Hongkongers to defend ‘one country, two systems’”.
She added the party would urgently raise the matter at Legco and grill officials over their handling.
Democratic Party members and supporters rallying outside Beijing’s liaison office on Friday. Photo: Felix Wong
Fellow pan-democratic camp members Cyd Ho Sau-lan of the Labour Party and Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu of the Civic Party said they especially wanted next Wednesday at Legco to ask security minister Lai Tung-kwok to come clean on how would they liaise with Beijing concerning Lam’s account.
Six questions were already scheduled for the question-and-answer session to be held June 22, but the pair believed questions about Lam should come first.
“All they did was publish books based on rumours and the private lives of high-ranking Chinese officials and they were treated this way,”
KWOK KA-KI, CIVIC PARTY LAWMAKER
Yeung’s party colleague Kwok Ka-ki wanted the Legco security panel to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the matter as soon as possible, while Claudio Mo Man-ching, also from the Civic Party, wanted the chamber to invoke its special powers and look into the actions taken by central and local authorities regarding Lam and his four Causeway Bay Bookstore associates.
The pan-democrats plan to march from the bookstore to the liaison office on Saturday to protest against the authorities’ treatment of the five associates.
On Friday, around two dozen members of Civic Party gathered outside the office, condemning mainland authorities for abducting the booksellers.
Kwok told those gathered: “All they did was publish books based on rumours and the private lives of high-ranking Chinese officials and they were treated this way. We cannot tolerate this.
Meanwhile, an editorial appearing on Friday in Beijing newspaper Global Times that sounded a more sceptical note of Lam’s account was deleted.
It stated that “Lam was convinced that Lee was taken away by mainland officers operating [in Hong Kong], but he failed to provide any evidence to prove so”.
Civic Party members and supporters also gathered outside the liaison office on Friday. Photo: Felix Wong
The editorial also stated that Lam’s account “at least confirmed he was not tortured or forced to make a criminal confession”.
The newspaper could not be reached for comment.
Lam said on Thursday he was detained in a small room in Ningbo in Zhejiang province for five months and was questioned by officers up to four times a week, sometimes for over an hour at a time. He is an associate of Causeway Bay Books, a business that has published controversial material regarding mainland political and historical figures.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1976767/calls-grow-fix-dysfunctional-beijing-hong-kong-channels
