At a bicycle-parts factory in the go-go city of Shenzhen, a grim drama began this month when a group of men barged into a factory office and confronted owner Lau Siu-fan.
Still held hours later on Jan. 3, the Hong Kong businessman phoned his wife and said he had been beaten and his office was being looted. Lau told her he had repeatedly called police, though two officers came and left, declaring the affair a “business dispute.”
The next afternoon Lau was spotted by a local reporter, still trapped in his office, in tears, and the captors vowed to hold him until he paid millions of Chinese yuan to a scrap-metal vendor.
Since then, the businessman’s and his wife’s mobile phones have been turned off. Police say they know nothing of the case, and reporters have been turned away each time they attempt to visit the factory.
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