Becoming a Publisher is a fascinating job, something most of us bibliophiles would consider a dream job right? Safe and secure, surrounded by the things we love, getting to read wonderful new tomes before anyone else does and certainly not something that would put our safety at risk; well not unless a stack of books toppled onto us anyway.
You might just change your mind after reading this; especially if you are based in Hong Kong and you decide you want to write a book about the President of your country.
Mighty Current Publishing of Hong Kong has now had 5 of its members disappear since October of 12015; the publishing house which also owns the Causeway Bay bookstore is renowned for its publication of ‘tabloid style’ books and its highly critical stance on Beijing, which wasn’t a problem until the handover of sovereignty to China in 1997. Since that time Hong Kong has enjoyed a degree of autonomy and has lived under the principle of one country, two systems although in recent years it seems that the mainland has been enforcing Chinese law upon Hong Kong people more and more albeit illegally.
Gui Minhai, who is a Swedish national and co-owner of the Mighty Current failed to return from a holiday in Thailand in October of last year, while another three MC associates disappeared whilst in southern China, reports said.
Then last Friday it emerged that Lee Bo had disappeared after visiting a warehouse owned by the company. His wife said that she had received a phone call from her husband after he had been detained at the warehouse stating he was “assisting in an investigation” however the call appears to have originated from the mainland prompting Democratic legislator Albert Ho to state during a press conference that he believed Lee was “politically abducted and illegally transferred to the mainland,”
Mr Ho then went on to say that “To my knowledge… the book concerns the story about the girlfriend…(from) some years ago,”
Maya Wang, a researcher from Human Rights Watch told The Telegraph that Mighty Current had previously been targeted by Beijing’s censors.
“I know the book sellers have been asked not to publish books in the past,” she said adding;
“There was one specifically on the party disciplinary system which they did not publish. Some other publisher published it in Hong Kong.”
So what is this book that has caused 5 men to disappear rather than allow it to be published? It seems it is a tell all style book about President Xi Jinping’s love life, specifically a book about his former girlfriend and it doesn’t appear to be going down well with authorities from mainland China.
The problem lies with the increasing traffic to and from Hong Kong by mainland Chinese citizens who do not have access to such inflammatory literature in their homeland. The Sovereignty handover has them making a beeline for Hong Kong and the Causeway Bay bookstore in order to get their fill of the tabloid style and very often less than complimentary books about their government that are available for sale there.
It seems that although Hong Kong is governed by the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ rule, which gives greater civil rights to its residents than those on the mainland, and forbids Chinese police operating there, that those very same police do not appear to be adhering to those laws.
Democratic party leader Emily Lau Wai-hing said local media on Monday “Now mainland personnel have enforced laws in Hong Kong illegally, will this result in a change of the one country two system?”
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying also in the said South China Morning Post newspaper “It would be unacceptable if mainland law enforcement agents enforce laws in Hong Kong,”
Whatever the truth, five men involved in the publication of books on the island of Hong Kong have disappeared in the last 3 months and there is no explanation as to why.
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