Hong Kong publisher The Mighty Current has cancelled a book critical of the Chinese government, after five employees recently went missing.
The chief editor of publishing house Jin Zhong revealed the fate of the book’s publication to Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper. TIME has the scoop:
“The difficulty of publishing political books in Hong Kong is already in the international spotlight,” Jin wrote, according to the HKFP. “People in the industry are feeling great fear and pressure; they want to stay out of trouble so that they won’t be the next one [to disappear]. I received many calls from friends and family trying to persuade me. Because of that, we decided after much deliberation to suspend the publication of your work.”
Last week, a group of American book publishing associations called for the release of the missing publishing company employees.