Hong Kong police arrest five booksellers for 'seditious' publications in third raid on independent stores this year

The raids

On Wednesday, Hong Kong police raided two independent bookstores in the Mong Kok district, arresting five people and seizing boxes of material. Officers in vests marked "Police" were filmed carrying boxes from Have A Nice Stay, a shop founded by former journalists, while AFP reporters saw a woman in handcuffs led to a van. A few streets away, similar scenes unfolded at Greenfield Book Store, according to video posted by online outlet The Collective. Police confirmed the operation targeted two stores in Mong Kok but did not name them.

What the police allege

The National Security Department acted after customs officials discovered books with "seditious intention" in a shipment from overseas, police said. The five arrested (two men aged 37 and 57, and three women between 30 and 59) are suspected of displaying and selling publications that incite hatred against the Hong Kong government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies. The offence falls under the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, enacted on top of the 2020 national security law imposed by Beijing after the 2019 pro-democracy protests. A conviction carries up to seven years in prison. Police did not specify the titles of the books.

A widening crackdown

Wednesday's operation is the third time this year that Hong Kong authorities have targeted independent booksellers. In March, four people were arrested at Book Punch, and in June two employees of Hunter bookstore were detained, both on suspicion of selling seditious publications. Earlier raids were reportedly linked to a biography of pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, whom US President Donald Trump unsuccessfully pressed Chinese leader Xi Jinping to release during their May summit.

International reaction

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemned the arrests.

The targeting and arrests of booksellers in Hong Kong expose what the Chinese government fears most: free thinking.

Amnesty International said the raids reflect "the cold reality of what this city has become: people can be criminalised just for the books on their shelves." Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a historian at the University of California, Irvine, described the moves as "part of an ongoing struggle for the hearts and minds of young people in Hong Kong."

Bookstores under pressure

Have A Nice Stay had announced on Tuesday, a day before the raid, that it would close on 30 August, citing financial difficulties and "uncertainties regarding the social environment" (an elusive red line on permissible content). The shop, founded in 2022 by former journalists including Sum Wan-wah, sold books on media literacy, democratic development and authoritarianism. In a 2023 interview, Sum Wan-wah told AFP the shop provided a "precious" space for Hong Kong's civil society "because we don't have many groups and venues left."

Greenfield Book Store, which stocks literature, history and philosophy from Hong Kong and Taiwan, was closed when reporters visited during business hours. Neither store participated in the government-organised Hong Kong Book Fair, which opened the same day and has barred independent bookstores. The raids follow the recent death of Lam Wing-kee, owner of Causeway Bay Books, who made headlines in 2016 after revealing he was held by Chinese authorities. Hong Kong's independent bookstore industry, once flourishing, has dwindled since the enactment of sweeping national security legislation.