China 'detains' dissident HK bookseller again

Rights campaigners slammed as "appalling" Tuesday the disappearance of dissident publisher Gui Minhai after his daughter revealed he had been snatched again in mainland China, the latest person ensnared in Beijing's crackdown on civil society.

Rights have come under increasing pressure since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, with widespread arrests of lawyers and activists.

Gui, a Swedish citizen, was one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers, known for salacious titles about the lives of China's political elite, who went missing in 2015 and resurfaced in detention on the mainland.

Chinese authorities said they had released Gui in October, but it was unclear to what extent he was a free man.

His daughter Angela Gui told Radio Sweden that since her father's official release from detention, he had been put in a police-managed flat under surveillance.