The four men work for Sage Communications, a publisher and bookshop famed for producing sensational and salacious tomes on the private lives of top Chinese leaders.
Recent titles include The Collapse of Xi Jinping in 2017, Hu Jintao’s Plot Against Xi Jinping, and a book allegedly penned by the former mistress of China’s disgraced security chief Zhou Yongkang, who was sentenced to life in prison in June.
Gui Haiming, the Swedish owner of Sage Communications, was last seen after he travelled to his holiday home in Thailand, while Lu Bo, the company’s general manager, and Zhang Zhiping, another employee, have not been heard from since they went to visit family members in mainland China.
Lin Rongji, the manager of Sage Bookshop, has also disappeared, although his whereabouts are not clear, according to a report from Radio Free Asia, the US-funded news group.
Maya Wang, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong, said: “They all live in Hong Kong and we are very concerned about this report.
“If this is confirmed, it would be another case involving Chinese dissidents and the Thai authorities. Currently, a member of the banned Chinese Democratic party, Dong Guangping, has been arrested while he was applying for political asylum [and] accused of having an expired passport.
“And we have other reports concerning Chinese dissidents being brought to China from [Myanmar] after they pleaded guilty to immigration charges, and of Turkic refugees in Thailand sent to China.”