香港近乎逐批檢查臺灣書籍貨運

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council says increase in inspections followed amendments to implementation rules of Hong Kong’s national security law Customs says it is fully committed to safeguarding national security. Photo: Nathan Tsui Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) says Hong Kong customs has stepped up scrutiny of “almost every book shipment” from the island, while a logistics company has separately told bookstores to ensure their orders would not breach the city’s national security laws. Independent bookstores and logistics companies also confirmed on Wednesday that customs had stepped up checks on book shipments from Taiwan in recent months. In a reply to the South China Morning Post, a spokesman for the Customs and Excise Department said it was fully committed to safeguarding national security and would seize any seditious items discovered and refer cases to the police. The MAC told the SCMP the increase in inspections followed amendments in March to the implementation rules of Hong Kong’s national security law, which empower authorities to seize items deemed seditious. “Since March and April this year, almost all orders of books from Taiwan have been checked by Hong Kong Customs; compared with once every several months previously, the checks are more frequent,” a MAC spokesman said. The spokesman expressed concern that Hong Kong authorities were continually curtailing the freedom of speech and publication, saying Taiwan would always welcome Hongkongers to “read and purchase books”. The MAC’s remarks followed a notice issued by Jaguar Logistics, a Hong Kong-based firm with branches in mainland China and Taiwan, urging local bookstores to ensure their shipments do not breach national security legislation. The company stated it would not ship books that violate the law, as well as orders from “bookstores under authorities’ investigation”. The notice came at a time of rising pressure on independent bookstores in Hong Kong. Leticia Wong Man-huen and her husband, the owners of Hunter’s Bookstore in Sham Shui Po, were arrested last month on suspicion of sedition and money laundering. Secretary for Security Chris Tang says booksellers are responsible for ensuring the titles they sell do not violate national security laws. Photo: Sam Tsang Last week, police raided Have a Nice Stay bookshop in Prince Edward and Greenfield Book Store in Mong Kok. Officers seized books and arrested five people for allegedly displaying and selling seditious publications. All those arrested have been released on bail. Unhandled type: inline-plus-widget {"type":"inline-plus-widget"} Confirming the notice, a staff member from Jaguar’s Taiwan branch told the SCMP that Hong Kong authorities had been inspecting books from the island more frequently, but said this was presented to them as normal procedure. He said that submitting a shipment list had always been a standard export requirement, though the company would now scrutinise shipments more closely to determine whether they might breach the law. “Whether a book violates the national security law is determined by the Hong Kong government, but some books that obviously [violate the law], for example Let Only Red Flowers Bloom , we will not ship,” the staff said. Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China , written by American journalist Emily Feng about people who pushed back against Chinese rule, was reportedly the publication deemed seditious that triggered police raids and arrests at Have a Nice Stay and Greenfield Book Store last week. The staff also confirmed that Jaguar would stop shipments to the bookshops under investigation. “For example, Have a Nice Stay was our customer, but we told them we will not be able to serve them any more, because the incident had caused a scene,” the staff member said. Several independent bookstore owners, speaking on condition of anonymity, said customs scrutiny on recent shipments had become more rigorous “Our shipments were rarely inspected in the past; however, around 70 per cent of our shipments were checked in recent months,” an owner said. They also said Jaguar had been a primary courier for the industry due to its partnership with a major Taiwan book distributor, efficient services and long-standing cooperation. They estimated that Taiwan titles accounted for 60 to 70 per cent of the inventory in local independent bookstores, warning that failing to seek alternative logistics channels could severely cripple their businesses. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung previously said that booksellers were responsible for ensuring the titles they sold did not violate national security legislation, and reiterated that the authorities would not compile a list of “banned books”.