One day after he returned to Hong Kong, the “missing” bookseller Lee Bo has returned to mainland China and promised he would no longer deal in banned books, according to local reports.
In the latest twist to a tale that has gripped Hong Kong, Lee told reporters gathered outside his North Point home that he would not go back into the banned book business, before he returned to mainland China.
Lee is one of five men linked to book publisher Mighty Current and the Causeway Bay bookstore who went missing at the end of last year.
They later turned up in mainland China, claiming to be assisting authorities with an investigation of their colleague Gui Minhai.
“I did not dare to go to the mainland for a while previously. I heard that people had got into trouble for their [banned books] business. I was afraid. But after I went [to the mainland] and solved all the problems this time, I can finally feel at ease now,” the South China Morning Post reported Lee as saying.
Lee requested that Hong Kong police drop their investigation into his disappearance at the end of last year, following similar requests from three of his colleagues earlier this the year.
Apple Daily newspaper reported that Lee, who had only just returned to Hong Kong on Thursday, crossed over the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border by car, together with an unidentified man dressed in white.