Hong Kong police raid independent bookstore and arrest five people

Hong Kong police raided an independent bookstore run by former journalists on Wednesday, in the latest action targeting independent bookshops in the city.

Officers led a handcuffed woman to a van and removed several boxes of materials from Have A Nice Stay bookshop. Police said the National Security Department searched two shops after being alerted to books with "seditious intention" found in a shipment from overseas.

Police said five people were arrested on suspicion of displaying and offering for sale items with "seditious intention". The offence is punishable by up to seven years in prison under Hong Kong's 2024 national security law, which was enacted in addition to legislation imposed by Beijing after pro-democracy protests in 2019.

The police statement did not name the two shops. Reporters witnessed the raid on Have A Nice Stay, and local media, citing unnamed sources, said officers also searched Greenfield Book Store. Greenfield was closed when reporters visited during its opening hours.

The operation came a day after Have A Nice Stay said it would close in August, citing reasons including Hong Kong's social environment and its financial situation. The shop said the city's economic situation made it very difficult to continue operating.

Wednesday's raid was the third reported targeting of independent booksellers in Hong Kong this year. Two employees of Hunter bookstore were arrested last month, after four workers at Book Punch were arrested in March for selling publications described by authorities as "seditious".

Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the targeting and arrests of booksellers showed that the Chinese government feared free thinking. He said Beijing was trying to impose a world in which people think only what authorities permit.

Have A Nice Stay was founded in 2022 by former journalists in what the source describes as an increasingly constrained media environment. Many of its books focus on media literacy, democratic development and authoritarianism. It also sells publications and merchandise produced by local media outlets and journalists.

Sum Wan-wah, a veteran journalist who co-founded the shop, told AFP in 2023 that it offered a valuable space for Hong Kong civil society because few groups and venues remained.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the raids and urged authorities to stop treating publishing activities as national security threats. Beh Lih Yi, the group's Asia-Pacific director, said Hong Kong was targeting booksellers on the same day the city's annual book fair opened.

Authorities have imposed restrictions on publications allowed at the fair since the national security laws were enacted.