The mystery surrounding five missing Hong Kong booksellers known for titles banned in mainland China deepened after one purportedly wrote to say he was fine and helping with an investigation, prompting his wife to drop a missing person's report.
Hong Kong police said late yesterday that Lee Bo's wife canceled the report, but that they would continue investigating the other cases. They didn't say whether Lee had been located.
Lee and four other people associated with publisher Mighty Current, which specializes in books critical of China's Communist Party leaders, have vanished in recent months.
Their disappearances have prompted fears that Beijing is eroding the "one country, two systems principle" that's been in place since Britain ceded control in 1997 and that grants Hong Kong civil liberties nonexistent on the mainland, including freedom of the press.
Lee's disappearance has triggered speculation that Chinese security agents entered Hong Kong to abduct and spirit him to the mainland.
Four other people linked to the company went missing in October, but they were last seen either in mainland China or Thailand.
Taiwan's Central News Agency first reported late yesterday on Lee's handwritten faxed letter, which was then circulated by Chinese-language media in Hong Kong.
The letter, addressed to an employee at the publishing company's Causeway Bay Bookstore, said: "Due to some urgent matters that I need to handle and that aren't to be revealed to the public, I have made way own way back to the mainland in order to cooperate with the investigation by relevant parties."
"It might take a bit of time," it said. "My current situation is very well. All is normal."
The letter gave no details about what the investigation was related to.
Local media reported that Lee's wife, Choi Ka-ping, asked police to drop the missing person's report after learning of the letter, the authenticity of which could not be independently confirmed. Choi's phone number was written on the fax, but calls to her went unanswered.
However, Hong Kong lawmakers and human rights activists were skeptical that the letter proved Lee was safe.
