李波妻子要求香港警方銷案 Missing Hong Kong bookseller's wife seeks to retract police rep

The mystery surrounding the disappearance from Hong Kong of a publisher who sold books critical of China’s top leaders has taken another twist after his wife asked police to cancel her missing person’s report.

李波的妻子已要求警方撤銷她的失蹤人口報案，令這位出版人在香港的失蹤之謎又生轉折。李波曾銷售批評中國最高領導層的圖書。

Hong Kong police said his wife, who reported Lee Bo missing last week, tried to rescind the report on Monday but they were still investigating the case “in a proactive manner”, in line with rules that only the missing person themselves can close such a case.

李波的妻子在上週報案李波失蹤，香港警方表示她已試圖在週一銷案，但他們仍在“積極主動地”調查此案。依據香港法規，只有失蹤者本人可以撤銷這類案件。

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s state news agency published a handwritten letter that it said had been faxed by Mr Lee to a colleague at their Causeway Bay Bookstore, in which the publisher said that he had gone to the mainland urgently and of his own volition to “co-operate with a relevant investigation”.

與此同時，臺灣官方通訊社刊登了一封手寫信，據說是由李波傳真給他在銅鑼灣書店的一名同事。這位出版商在信中表示他出於自己的意志，緊急回到內地“配合有關方面調查”。

In an editorial published on Tuesday, the Global Times, lent support to the theory that Mr Lee was “assisting an investigation” in the mainland before launching an attack on his business.

《環球時報》(Global Times)週二發表的社論先是支持了李波正在內地“協助調查”的說法，接着對李波的業務發起抨擊。

“Causeway Bay Books almost only publishes and sells mainland-related political books, many of which contain maliciously fabricated content,” it said. “Those books have through various channels entered into the mainland and have become a source of certain political rumours, which have caused some evil influence to some extent.”

社論中寫道：“銅鑼灣書店幾乎專門出版、銷售與內地有關的政治書籍，它們很多都包含惡意編造的內容。那些書籍通過各種渠道流進內地，成爲一些政治謠言的源頭，在一定範圍內造成惡劣影響。”

China’s foreign ministry has said it had no information on the case.

中國外交部表示對此事無可奉告。

Human rights campaigners say that security forces in China often detain dissidents and those accused of political crimes without informing their family or explaining why they are being held.

人權活動者表示中國的安保機構經常扣留持不同政見者以及被指控犯有政治罪的人士，卻不通知他們的家人，也不解釋爲什麼他們會被扣留。

But they have no legal right to operate in Hong Kong, a point reinforced on Monday by CY Leung, the territory’s chief executive, who added that there was as yet “no indication” that China was involved in the disappearance of the booksellers.

但香港特別行政區行政長官樑振英(CY Leung)在週一強調，內地執法人員並沒有權利在港執法，並表示尚無跡象顯示內地參與了李波失蹤事件。