Suspected abduction of five booksellers prompts fears of mounting self-censorship in face of mainland crackdown on ‘salacious’ publications

One of Hong Kong’s leading international bookshop chains has removed politically sensitive books from its shelves in the wake of the mysterious disappearance of five of the city’s booksellers, stoking fears over mounting self-censorship in the former British colony.

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Page One, a major Singapore chain, with outlets in both Hong Kong and mainland China, has decided to stop selling all politically sensitive books in Chinese – known locally as “jinshu”, or “forbidden books” – in its Hong Kong shops, as the mystery over the whereabouts of the five vanished men deepens.



The chain, which specialises in graphic design and visual art volumes, had been limiting the number of political books it sold ever since clinching a deal a few years ago with authorities to expand its operations in the mainland – where no Chinese-language “sensitive” political books published in Hong Kong are allowed for distribution.

However, until recently Page One’s outlet in the departure hall of Hong Kong airport had continued to cater to the strong appetite of mainland Chinese travellers for volumes on political intrigue and gossip.

That has now changed. A bookshop clerk confirmed that politically sensitive tomes, such as those produced by the missing booksellers, would no longer be stocked.

“I know the books you mention. The politics books. We have sold out on those titles and will not be receiving any new stocks,” the clerk, who declined to give his name, told the Guardian.

“We are not going to sell them again. I think you can understand.”

A broad range of political books will now no longer be available for purchase. They include serious volumes such as Journey of the Reforms, the best-selling memoirs of Zhao Ziyang, the high-ranking reformist official who was imprisoned after the Tiananmen protests; as well as gossipy tomes such as The Secret Deals Between Xi Jinping and Bo Xilai, a fast read with few reliable facts.

The numerous salacious autobiographies penned by the alleged mistresses of high-ranking Communist party officials will also be absent from Page One’s shelves.

Lisa Leung Yuk-ming, an associate professor from the department of cultural studies at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, said the move underlined the growing political pressure Hong Kong was coming under from local and central authorities.

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“This is just the kind of thing that we fear,” she said. “The chilling effect from any such case leads to self-censorship. We must monitor the range of ‘forced disappearances’ of books from the shelves, as it easily reaches also into those academic publications that criticise Chinese politics or even the Chinese economy.”

Leung said a growing climate of fear had taken root in Hong Kong meaning that “censorship turns into self-censorship”.

“The fact that a publisher is ‘disappeared’ in what seems to be a move to discipline and even silence possible dissent is unprecedented,” she said. “[W]e are beginning to see a fuller picture of increasing blatant attacks on related freedoms, both in universities and in the publishing world.”

The whereabouts of the five missing booksellers – who include British passport-holder Lee Bo and his business partner Gui Minhai – remain a mystery, although they are widely suspected to have been detained by Chinese authorities.

One well-placed Hong Kong publishing source claimed the detentions were designed to prevent the publication of a book about Chinese president Xi Jinping’s personal life.

Speaking in Beijing on Wednesday, British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said China would be guilty of an “egregious breach” of Hong Kong’s autonomy if speculation that its security forces had abducted a bookseller in the former colony was confirmed.