香港警方调查出版人李波失踪案

Hong Kong police are investigating the disappearance of a publisher who sold books critical of China’s top leaders, in a case that has sparked further protests about mainland interference in the affairs of the semi-autonomous territory.

香港警方正在调查一名出版人失踪的案件，此人曾销售批评中国最高领导层的图书，此案已引发抗议，抗议针对的是中国内地干涉这个半自治的特别行政区的事务。

Lee Ka-chiu, a senior official in the government’s security bureau, said on Sunday that the police missing persons unit was trying to find out what happened to Lee Bo, who was last seen in Hong Kong on Wednesday, but that it had not yet reached any conclusions.

香港保安局(Security Bureau)副局长李家超(Lee Ka-chiu)周日表示，警方的失踪人口调查组正在试图查明李波(Lee Bo)的下落，后者上周三最后一次在香港露面，但警方尚未得出任何结论。

Four of his colleagues from the Mighty Current publishing company disappeared late last year while outside of Hong Kong, amid speculation that they had been taken for questioning by security forces in mainland China.

李波在巨流传媒(Mighty Current)出版公司的四名同事去年末在香港境外相继失踪，当时有传言称，他们被中国内地安全部门带走问话。

Activists say Mr Lee’s case is even more concerning because he went missing from Hong Kong, which has an independent, British-style legal system as part of the “one country, two systems” arrangement that was agreed with Beijing when the former colony was handed over in 1997.

活动人士表示，李波的案件甚至更加令人关切，因为他是在香港失踪的，而香港拥有一个英式的独立司法体系，这是这个前殖民地1997年回归中国时达成的“一国两制”安排的一部分。

On Sunday, the bookstore in Causeway Bay, which sits underneath a nail parlour and opposite a Burberry store in the heart of Hong Kong’s main shopping district, was closed.

周日，位于铜锣湾(Causeway Bay)的这家书店没有开门。该书店地处香港主要购物区的心脏地带，楼上是一家美甲店，对面是一家博柏利(Burberry)专卖店。

Posters outside the shop promoted a range of their books, which would almost certainly be banned in authoritarian China because they cover a range of topics that are deemed highly sensitive, such as corruption and the personal lives of top leaders.

店外的一些海报推介一系列图书，这些书在威权的中国内地几乎肯定会遭禁，因为它们涉及一些被视为高度敏感的主题，比如腐败以及最高领导人的私人生活。

Mr Lee’s wife told Hong Kong media that she last saw him on Wednesday and he later called from a mainland number to tell her he was “assisting in an investigation” and would be back soon.

李波的妻子告诉记者，她最后一次见到他是在上周三，之后他从一个内地电话号码给她打电话，说他正在“协助调查”，很快会回来。

Albert Ho, an opposition lawmaker in Hong Kong, said on Sunday that he had “strong reason to believe Mr Lee Bo has probably been kidnapped and smuggled back to the mainland for political investigation” because of his role in publishing books that were critical of the Chinese government.

香港立法会的民主派议员何俊仁(Albert Ho)周日表示，他有“充分理由相信李波先生很可能已被绑架，并被偷偷带回中国内地协助政治调查”，原因是他在出版批评中国政府的图书方面扮演了角色。

It was not immediately possible to verify his claim.

记者无法立即核实他的这一说法。

Mr Lee, the Hong Kong security official, said that the police had asked their mainland counterparts if the publisher had been detained and they were yet to hear back from them.

香港保安局的李家超表示，警方已询问内地同行有没有拘留这名出版人，但尚未得到回音。

Although Chinese security forces regularly detain dissidents in the mainland without charging them or informing their families, they have no legal right to operate in Hong Kong.

尽管中国内地安全部门经常在不提出指控、也不通知家人的情况下扣留在内地的异见人士，但他们依法没有在香港执行任务的权利。

However, democracy campaigners fear that the city’s autonomy and its British-style freedoms are being eroded, pointing to growing threats to freedom of the press and academic independence.

然而，民主派活动人士担心，该市的自主性和英式自由正受到侵蚀，他们指出新闻自由和学术独立面临越来越大的威胁。

Lee Cheuk-yan, another opposition lawmaker, said the disappearance of the booksellers undermined Hongkongers’ sense of security and suggested that the one country, two systems arrangement had “been torn up”.

另一位民主派议员李卓人(Lee Cheuk-yan)表示，书店职员的失踪破坏了港人的安全感，并且表明一国两制安排已“被撕毁”。

“We’ve been living with a false sense of security and that’s very frightening,” he said.

“我们一直生活在安全的错觉中，那是非常可怕的，”他说。