Exclusive | Hong Kong ministers to head delegation in talks in Beijing on detainee notification system
Justice and security chiefs to meet mainland officials over ways to improve mechanism after five Hong Kong booksellers held across border
Hong Kong’s justice and security ministers will fly to Beijing with a delegation as soon as this week to meet mainland officials over improving communication between the two sides in the wake of the bookseller controversy, the South China Morning Post has learned.
The first step would be to explore a key area – extending the system, under which Hong Kong must be notified when its residents are detained on the mainland, to cover all provinces instead of only Guangdong, sources told the Post.
Leading the Hong Kong delegation to the Ministry of Public Security will be Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung and Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok. Top brass from Hong Kong police and customs are also understood to be on the team.
The government is expected to make an announcement on Monday about the two-day meeting, during which the Hong Kong side will be briefed on the case of the five Causeway Bay Books booksellers who went missing last year and turned up on the mainland.
At the meeting, officials from both sides are expected to review the operation of the notification mechanism since its implementation in 2001, to see if there are issues that need to be addressed and explore ways to improve it.
