Beijing official accuses bookseller of ‘destroying’ Hong Kong’s governing policy

A top Beijing official overseeing Hong Kong affairs has accused bookseller Lam Wing-kee of “destroying” the city’s “one country, two systems” governing policy by publishing and selling books banned on the mainland.

Lam was in the spotlight again on Friday, as he pulled out of the annual July 1 rally, citing safety concerns that he was being followed by strangers.

Director Wang Guangya of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, speaking in Beijing, attacked Lam for “publishing books in Hong Kong attacking the mainland’s political system and then selling them on the mainland”.

“The books they publish aren’t about Hong Kong affairs ... but about the mainland’s affairs. He publishes ... books in Hong Kong and brings them back to sell on the mainland. This is his understanding of ‘one country, two systems’ – this ‘one country, two systems’, we’d rather not have it,” Wang said.

The veteran Beijing official also denied having ever heard of the mysterious “special central investigative unit” that Lam identified as his “abductors” when he was detained after crossing into Shenzhen last October.

The man who stunned the city with his testimony about his eight-month incarceration on the mainland without due process or access to a lawyer, was supposed to lead yesterday’s pro-democracy march but decided against it at the last minute because of a “serious threat”.