Police in Hong Kong raided two bookshops and arrested five people on suspicion of displaying and selling seditious publications, reports said on Wednesday.
The move marks the third round of arrests as part of a crackdown on independent bookshops, with similar campaigns conducted in March and June.
The raid is widely seen as an attempt to crush free speech and dissent under the semi-autonomous city’s stringent national security law.
What do we know about the arrests of Hong Kong booksellers?
According to media reports, police raided Have a Nice Stay book shop and Greenfield Book Store, founded by former journalists.
Footage shared by media outlets showed officers wearing vests with “Police” written on them, confiscating boxes from Have a Nice Stay, while the AFP news agency said its correspondents saw a handcuffed woman being taken from the store to a van.
Similar incidents were reported a few streets away, as boxes were taken out of the building that housed the Greenfield Book Store, a video posted by The Collective online news outlet showed.
A police statement later confirmed that two shops in Mong Kok district were raided, without naming the shops.
The raid on Have a Nice Stay came a day after it announced in a Facebook post that it was closing on August 30 for reasons including “uncertainties about the social climate” and financial difficulties.
What are the charges against Hong Kong booksellers?
The stores were searched by the National Security Department after customs officials alerted them to the discovery of allegedly seditious books in shipments being sent to Hong Kong from overseas, police said.
The police statement said the content of the publications included spreading hatred against the city government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies.
The police did not reveal the titles of the books.
He said five people – two men and three women – were arrested on suspicion of violating the 2024 national security law.
The crime is punishable by up to seven years in prison under Hong Kong’s national security law, which was imposed in 2024 on top of a 2020 law imposed by China after massive pro-democracy protests.
Hong Kong’s independent bookstore industry once flourished, but has declined since the implementation of the sweeping security law.
In June, two employees of Hong Kong’s Hunter Bookstore were arrested, while four employees of Book Punch were detained in March on charges of selling “seditious” publications.
Amnesty International says Hong Kong bookstore raid a ‘blow’ to freedom of expression
Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday that the use of the “sedition” crime to target bookshops was once again a demonstration of how Hong Kong’s national security is being “weaponised to suppress dissenting voices and eliminate spaces for free thought and debate”.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, said: “The increasing attacks on Hong Kong’s independent bookshops this year have exposed the city’s chilling reality: a place where you can be criminalized for the things on your bookshelf.”
Taiwan’s Lai says bookstores protect ideas
Taiwan President Lai Ching-tey said Thursday that every independent bookstore is an important place to protect ideas.
Lai wrote on Facebook, “We would like to express our concern and respect for all booksellers and cultural workers who stick to their guns even in difficult circumstances. Thought and writing should not be imprisoned due to political pressure.”
China views democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory and considers Lai a “separatist”.
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Edited by: Shawn Sinico