Hong Kong authorities raided two independent bookstores on Wednesday and arrested five people on suspicion of selling seditious publications, marking the third wave of such arrests targeting the city’s independent booksellers in recent months.
Officers in police vests seized boxes from Have A Nice Stay, a bookshop founded by former journalists, and a few streets away conducted a similar operation at Greenfield Book Store, according to video footage from multiple media outlets. Police arrested two men and three women on suspicion of breaching the 2024 national security law. The government did not immediately identify those arrested, though local media reported that one was Leticia Wong, a former pro-democracy district councillor and owner of Hunter Bookstore.
An investigation showed the five people were suspected of displaying seditious materials and selling seditious publications on the premises. According to authorities, the publications’ content included material stirring up hatred against the city’s government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies. Customs officials initiated the case after discovering allegedly seditious books in a batch of goods shipped to Hong Kong from overseas, though police did not specify which titles were involved.
The bookstores remained closed during their usual opening hours on Wednesday. Calls to the stores’ representatives went unanswered. Have A Nice Stay had already announced plans to shut down on August 30, citing financial difficulties and what it described as an elusive red line—a reference to uncertain boundaries of what is legally permissible.
This wave of arrests represents an escalation in a pattern that has unfolded over the past few months. In March, police arrested the owner and staff of Book Punch, an independent bookstore, on similar suspicion of selling seditious publications. Among the materials seized were biographies of Jimmy Lai, a former pro-democracy media tycoon who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in his national security case. Those arrested in March were later released on bail.
In June, Hong Kong police arrested two booksellers, including Wong of Hunter Bookstore, on suspicion of selling seditious publications and receiving funds from foreign political organizations. They were also later released on bail.
The arrests are part of a broader crackdown following the enactment of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, commonly known as Article 23, which took effect in March 2024. The law replaced a colonial-era sedition statute with new provisions that expressly cover acts or speech which do not incite violence. Maximum penalties for sedition were increased from two years to seven years, or up to ten years if the offense involves collusion with external forces.
Wong, who owned Hunter Bookstore since 2022, has faced particular scrutiny for her continued outspokenness despite the political climate. According to local media reports citing unidentified sources, she was among those arrested in the June operation. In interviews, Wong described the store being subjected to frequent administrative checks from multiple government departments, including food and environmental hygiene inspectors, fire safety officials and environmental protection agencies.
The crackdowns against independent bookstores have been widely viewed as efforts to stifle dissent in the Asian financial hub. Wong remained committed to stocking politically sensitive titles, including books such as Animal Farm and Attack on Titan, which are banned in mainland China, and biographies of imprisoned activists and politicians.
Hong Kong’s publishing landscape has undergone a stark transformation. The city was once known as a haven for freedom of expression and publication, where residents from mainland China crossed the border to purchase books deemed too politically sensitive for sale on the mainland. Some Chinese residents would travel to Hong Kong specifically to buy titles unavailable in their home country.
This legacy was symbolized by Lam Wing-kee, the owner of the original Causeway Bay Books, who became an international symbol of Hong Kong’s eroding freedoms. In 2015, Lam and four other staff members from the bookstore vanished. In 2016, Lam revealed that he had been detained by Chinese authorities after crossing into Shenzhen and held for months while being interrogated. He described being blindfolded during a lengthy train journey and kept under constant surveillance. Lam fled to Taiwan in 2019 and reopened Causeway Bay Books in Taipei, where he remained until his death earlier this month at age 70.
Authorities in Hong Kong insist that national security laws are crucial for the city’s stability. Government officials say they will not establish an official list of banned books, claiming such a measure would be impractical to implement. However, the impact on independent bookstores has been substantial, with the combination of legal pressure and financial hardship forcing several to close.
Following the massive pro-democracy protests in 2019, independent bookstores have faced an increasingly challenging operating environment. The 2020 Beijing-imposed National Security Law, combined with the 2024 domestic law, has created what many observers describe as an atmosphere of legal uncertainty and self-censorship that extends beyond bookstores to publishers and media outlets across the city.