A controversial new theory about bookseller Lee Bo’s disappearance has surfaced, which claims the Hong Kong publisher could be jailed for up to a decade over blackmailing charges.
The rumour, which was published on BowenPress, speculated that Lee threatened to publish books that would damage the reputations of mainland China’s political and business elite in order to extort money.
BowenPress failed to name any of Lee’s alleged victims, or any figures of how much cash that was reportedly extorted; however, the article quoted unnamed sources who said such tactics are commonplace in the Hong Kong publishing industry, and often went unreported due to the so-called bigwigs’ reluctance to get police involved.
This is the latest in a series of widely circulated and unsubstantiated theories on the booksellers’ disappearances; most notable was the idea that they were apprehended for taking illegal boats into China to patronise sex workers, which was put forward in a LegCo meeting by pro-government lawmaker Ng Leung-sing. Ng later apologised for mentioning unverified “moral issues” to Lee’s wife.
Despite the bold claims made in the article, BowenPress concedes that the rumour could not be independently verified. According to the SCMP, BowenPress was launched in March 2015, and is associated with US-based Chinese community website Boxun, which mostly covers political goings-on and cases of human rights abuse in China.
The theory was published on the same day that Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged Beijing to treat the booksellers fairly, and just days after British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a biannual report that one of the booksellers had been “involuntarily removed” from Hong Kong in a “serious breach” of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Lee has been the subject of an international media frenzy after he was the fifth man associated with publishing house Mighty Current to mysteriously disappear. Lee’s disappearance in particular has caused a furore in Hong Kong, as people fear mainland agents forcefully took him from the S.A.R. to China.
Mighty Current is known for publishing tabloid-style volumes on Chinese leaders, both past and present, which are often purchased in Hong Kong as souvenirs by tourists from the mainland, where such books are banned.
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