The case of the missing Hong Kong publishers who sold books critical of China’s leadership has taken an international dimension after authorities in the UK confirmed that one of the men was a British citizen.
The development looks set to complicate a visit to Beijing by Philip Hammond, UK foreign secretary, who arrived in the Chinese capital yesterday amid an outcry in Hong Kong over the whereabouts of the men — in particular 65-year-old Lee Bo.
His disappearance last week from Hong Kong, along with four colleagues who went missing months earlier while outside the city, has shaken the former British colony, which was promised that it could keep its independent legal system and freedom of expression when Beijing took control in 1997