Improving Communication

Ministers of Justice and Security for the Hong Kong SAR will be flying to Beijing as early as this week to begin talks with mainland officials, regarding improved channels of communication in the wake of the disappearing bookseller controversy, the South China Morning Post has reported.
The incidents involved five booksellers in the SAR, who separately went missing starting from last October. The booksellers later resurfaced on the mainland months after their disappearance, having claimed “voluntary dislocation” from the SAR.
One of the booksellers, believed to have been dealing in books banned in China – a Swedish national – is still being held, while the other four have returned to Hong Kong within this year, with one claiming to have been abducted by agents from a central investigative unit, the publication notes.
The talks come in the wake of a request from the neighboring SAR’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to the central government for a review of the communication mechanism, which was recently granted, sparking the visit by the Hong Kong delegation to the mainland, notes SCMP.
In a recent interview with the publication, the Chief Executive expressed a wish for a comprehensive mechanism to apply to both the mainland and international governments regarding notification of detainment of its citizens, stating: “we want to know as soon as possible when a Hong Kong resident is arrested by a jurisdiction outside of Hong Kong […] that applies to foreign governments and should also apply to the mainland,”.
No cases
Despite local authorities in the Macau SAR possessing the mechanism to communicate and receive communication regarding these types of incidents, no effort is currently being made, or seen as required, to expand the mechanism currently managed by the Police force and the Ministry of Public Security. The reason – no such cases have occurred since the mechanism was set up.
“We have had this mechanism in place since 2001,” Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak told Business Daily, adding that: “it’s working very well, there has never been a similar case here (as that of the Hong Kong SAR bookseller disappearance).”
Much like Hong Kong’s current situation, the local communication agreement was reached with the central government’s Ministry of Security as well as the Police force, yet, according to the Secretary, the local SAR’s closest communication is with the neighboring province of Guangdong, which borders both Macau and Hong Kong.
“Until now everything has gone well and because of this I believe that it’s not necessary (to expand the mechanism),” explains Secretary Wong.
Accountability
Based on legislation enacted in 2001, the Public Security Police Force, under the border control division, is charged with the duty to ‘control and oversee the entrances and exits of all persons to and from the MSAR’ as well as to ‘propose the repatriation of people considered undesirable to the MSAR’. At the same time, under the same mandate but a separate division, the Public Security Police Force is charged with ‘guaranteeing the practice of citizens’ fundamental rights and liberties’ – therefore any case of disappearance and repatriation should fall immediately under the mandate of the Public Security Police Force, while simultaneously any need to repatriate would also be the responsibility of the same department.