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Hong Kong bookstore raids
Hong Kong police arrested five booksellers on Wednesday in raids on two independent shops in the Mong Kok district, targeting people suspected of displaying and selling “seditious” publications under the 2024 national security law.
“arrested five people on suspicion of selling allegedly “seditious” publications”
The Guardian said officers raided two bookstores and arrested five people on suspicion of selling allegedly “seditious” publications, with the police statement describing arrests for “seditious intention” after raids in Mong Kok.
UPI reported that the five were arrested on suspicion of “intention to commit sedition” under the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, and that if convicted they face a maximum prison sentence of seven years.
The raids followed a customs referral after a shipment of books was intercepted, and the police statement said the publications included content that stirred up hatred against the city’s government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies.
Chris Tang sets the line
Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang told reporters on Thursday that “If you are a bookseller, you have a responsibility to ensure that the books you sell do not endanger national security.”
Tang compared the responsibility to food vendors, saying they must ensure the goods they sell do not “contain poison or breach the law,” and he said authorities would not compile a list of banned books.
Amnesty International’s Sarah Brooks said the arrests confirm “the chilling reality of what the city has become: a place where people can be pursued solely for the contents of its shelves.”
NPR reported that Tang said the law is clear and that authorities would not make a list of banned books, while the Have A Nice Stay bookstore announced it would shut down on Aug. 30 citing “financial difficulties and an elusive red line.”
Pressure on independent publishing
The crackdown is framed as part of a widening clampdown on independent bookstores, with The Guardian saying it was the third round of arrests linked to independent bookstores after similar operations in March and June.
“It is the third round of arrests linked to independent bookstores after similar operations in March and June”
The Guardian also reported that Have A Nice Stay, founded by former journalists, announced it would shut down on 30 August, and it described the arrests as stifling dissent in the Asian financial hub.
Amnesty International said the use of sedition prosecutions to target bookstores shows Hong Kong’s national security legislation is being diverted to silence dissenting voices and eradicate spaces where people can think and debate freely.
In Taiwan, President Lai Ching-te said in a Facebook post that “Every independent bookstore is vital in guarding free thought,” while NPR reported that Liang Wen-chieh, deputy minister of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, said some Taiwanese publishers have self-censored their list of books when participating in a Hong Kong book fair.
