Case handled by same police bureau that investigated five Hong Kong booksellers for selling ‘unauthorised’ books on mainland, according to one of the sources
Two people have been jailed in mainland China for illegally selling books published in Hong Kong, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The case was handled by the same police bureau that investigated five people linked to Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong who went missing from their homes two years ago, one of the sources said. The cases prompted fears that they had been abducted by the mainland authorities for selling gossipy works critical of government leaders and the controversy attracted international headlines. The booksellers later surfaced on the mainland helping the police investigate the alleged sale of unauthorised books across the border. The two men jailed in the latest case are Dai Xuelin, a Beijing-based social media editor at the Guangxi Normal University Press, and his business partner Zhang Xiaoxiong, the sources said. Dai was jailed for five years and Zhang was given a 3½- year prison term for running an “illegal business operation”, according to the sources. The sentences were handed down by a court in Ningbo in Zhejiang province earlier this month, the sources said. It is not clear whether the pair had direct business links with booksellers at Causeway Bay Books. Dai and Zhang’s case was handled by police bureau in Ningbo, which also carried out the Hong Kong bookseller investigation, one source said, even though the pair do not come from the city.
