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Hong Kong investigating reportedly missing people from bookstore

CHINA: Hong Kong’s police department is investigating the reported disappearance of people related to a bookstore in the city, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said.

Lee Bo, a major shareholder of Causeway Bay Books, which specializes in reading material critical of the Chinese Communist Party, went missing and his wife reported his disappearance Friday afternoon, the South China Morning Post said Saturday. The disappearance of Lee, 65, comes weeks after four people related to the bookstore and its owner vanished, the newspaper said.

The Hong Kong government cares about the well-being of its people whether they are in the city or traveling abroad, Lam told reporters Saturday after attending an event, according to a statement from her office. She declined to comment further, given the police investigation.

Gui Minhai, the owner of Mighty Current, the publishing house which owns the bookstore, turned up in Thailand after leaving town, the South China Morning Post reported, without saying how it obtained the information. The bookstore’s manager Lam Wing-kei; Lui Bo, general manager of the publishing house; and Cheung Jiping, the publishing house’s business manager, were reported missing Nov. 5, according to the report.

The bookstore, established in 1994, was said to be popular among tourists from mainland China as they could buy political material banned across the border, according to the newspaper.

M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.