A protester wearing a mask of missing bookseller Lee Bo sits in a cage during a protest against the disappearances of booksellers in Hong Kong, in this Jan. 10, 2016 photo.

The wife of one of five missing Hong Kong booksellers said she met with her husband in China, according to a statement released by the Hong Kong police on Sunday amid growing diplomatic pressure on Chinese authorities to clarify the fate of the men.

Lee Bo, 65, an owner of a publisher and bookshop specializing in books critical of China’s Communist Party leaders, vanished in late December amid widespread speculation that Chinese authorities may have abducted him in the financial hub and spirited him across to China for an investigation.

Lee, who has dual Hong Kong and British citizenship, surfaced on Saturday, meeting wife at a guesthouse in mainland China, the Hong Kong police said in a statement issued after midnight on Sunday.

His wife, Sophie Choi, told police that she had met with her husband at a guesthouse in China on Saturday and that he was healthy and in good spirits.

The statement cited Lee’s wife as saying he was “assisting in an investigation in the capacity of a witness,” though she didn’t give specifics on the location nor the nature of the investigation, the statement added.

The Hong Kong police said they would continue to probe the case, and would put in a fresh request with police in China’s southern Guangdong province to arrange a meeting with Lee Bo.

Calls to the mobile phones of Lee and his wife went unanswered.

The disappearances have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using shadowy tactics that erode the “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997.

Related articles across the web

• Tesla HK dealer organized China drive?
• Canton Fair In China Needs U.S. Public Relations Assistance | Everything-PR: Leading Public Relations News Site
• Powa Technologies and UnionPay's Alliance to Create New Standard in Mobile Commerce
• #MARKETS Asian stocks surged ahead of Fed decision; Japan's Nikkei index jumped 2.4%, Shanghai Composite Index in mainland China rose 0.6%, Australia shares added 2.4% - @Reuters
• Shocking! Hong Kong Actor Chung Hon-leung Got Married Secretly and Has a Daughter?
• The environmental cost of rapid expansion in China
• Hon Hai joins internet of things bandwagon
• 3 coronavirus species co-circulating in dromedary camels in SA and Korean outbreak of MERS caused by recombinant variant
• Apple extending iconic Hong Kong store to a third floor, new space opening soon
• BAFTA's Amanda Berry Inks Deal with Beijing Film Academy's Zhang Huijun