Hong Kong Bookseller’s Daughter Seeks Help in Freeing Him

Angela Gui, the daughter of Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai, has been fighting a lonely battle to force Chinese authorities to release her father, who was kidnapped from his holiday home in Thailand in October 2015.

Gui is one of five men connected with the Causeway Bay Bookstore who disappeared in the fall of 2015 and later resurfaced in police custody on the Chinese mainland. The bookstore is owned by Mighty Current, a publisher of gossipy and sometimes sensationalistic books about Chinese leaders. The arrests led to demonstrations in Hong Kong protesting the suppression of free speech.

Gui, a Swedish citizen, is the only bookseller who remains in custody. The others were allowed to return to Hong Kong after months of detention.

Since her father’s disappearance, Angela Gui has done whatever she could to draw attention to his imprisonment. She has launched a website, Free Gui Minhai, testified before Congress, and given many interviews from her home in Great Britain.

Recently, she posed for a picture wearing the T-shirt that American Booksellers for Free Expression is selling to raise funds to help her continue to fight for her father’s release. Richard Howorth, owner of Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, suggested creating the shirt after hearing an interview with Angela Gui.

The front of the shirt uses Chinese characters to demand Gui’s release. The back reads, “American independent bookstores and readers for the release of Gui Minhai.” Profits will be donated to the Free Gui Minhai campaign.

Individual shirts can be purchased online for $20 with free shipping. For orders of 12 or more, the price is $8.50 per shirt; for orders of 72 or more, the price goes down to $6.50 per shirt. Shipping and customization, including the addition of a store logo, is free.