Hong Kong bookseller: China TV confession 'forced'

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Lam Wing Kee was seized in the Chinese city of Shenzhen last October.

He and the four other men worked at a publishing house that sold books critical of China's leaders.

Mr Lam said a confession broadcast on Chinese television in February, featuring four of the men, had been scripted.

"It was a show, and I accepted it," he told a news conference on Thursday, according to the South China Morning Post.

"They gave me the script. I had to follow the script. If I did not follow it strictly, they would ask for a retake."

Four of the men from Mighty Current publishing house, Gui Minhai, Lui Bo, Lam Wing Kee and Cheung Jiping, gave details of their alleged offences during their appearance on Phoenix TV in February.

Lam Wing Kee returned to Hong Kong on Tuesday. Only one of the men has yet to be released from detention.

Some people in Hong Kong believe the four were detained by China because of a book about President Xi Jinping.

They said they had sold 4,000 "unauthorised" books to 380 customers in mainland China, Phoenix TV reported.

1. Lui Bo, general manager. Went missing: Shenzhen, 15 October 2015Returned: March 2016

2. Cheung Jiping, business manager. Went missing: Dongguan, 15 OctoberReturned: March 2016

3. Gui Minhai, co-owner. Went missing: Thailand, 17 October Still missing

4. Lam Wing Kee, manager. Went missing: Shanzhen, 23 October Returned: June 2016

5. Lee Bo, shareholder. Went missing: 30 December - he says from the mainland, Mr Lam says it was from Hong Kong Returned: March 2016

Public confessions have long been a part of China's criminal law, but experts say many confessions are forced.

Mr Lam said the Chinese authorities had asked him to return to the mainland and hand over disks containing the names of people who had bought the books. He said that now he had returned to Hong Kong, he would not do so.

At the news conference, Mr Lam said one of his colleagues, Lee Bo, had been taken from Hong Kong. On his release, Mr Lee had insisted he went to the mainland voluntarily.

"Obviously, it was exactly the same situation in which I was forced to make a televised confession," Mr Lam said.

Earlier this year, the UK said Mr Lee had probably been "involuntarily removed" to China, calling it a "serious breach" of the handover treaty that undermined the principle of "One Country, Two Systems".

Under Hong Kong law, Chinese police do not have jurisdiction in the territory.

The case has sparked international concern that China could be attempting to rein in freedom of expression in Hong Kong.

However, China's foreign ministry said its officials would not behave illegally and urged other countries not to meddle in its affairs.

"Lam Wing Kee has blown apart the Chinese authorities' story," Mabel Au, director of Amnesty International Hong Kong, said.

"He has exposed what many have suspected all along - that this was a concerted operation by the Chinese authorities to go after the booksellers."