Hong Kong Bookseller Breaks Silence on China Detention Saga
- Account reignites concerns of Beijing’s encroachment on city
- Police seek interview for account of Lam’s months-long ordeal
Freed Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee attends a news conference in Hong Kong on June 16.
Photographer: Vincent Yu/AP PhotoOne of five Hong Kong booksellers held in China has stepped forward to detail his months-long detention ordeal, reigniting a case that had drawn international criticism about Beijing’s encroachment on the city’s autonomy.
The bookseller, Lam Wing-kee, told a news conference Thursday that he was accosted by 11 people after crossing the border into the southern city of Shenzhen in October. After having his personal documents confiscated, he was blindfolded and taken to the eastern city of Ningbo by train, he said. Lam was the first to speak out among five men linked to a Hong Kong bookstore that sold works critical of the Communist Party elite who went missing last year and reemerged on the mainland.