Police in Hong Kong detained five people after raiding two independent bookshops believed to sell seditious books. The group, consisting of two men aged 37 and 57 and three women aged 30 to 59, faces up to seven years in prison if convicted under national security laws that criminalise seditious intent. The authorities argue that the seized publications incited hatred against the government, judiciary and law enforcement.
The raid followed the announced closure of a Mong Kok shop, founded in 2022 by former journalists, which stocked works on democracy, authoritarianism and media literacy. Reporters saw a woman in handcuffs taken from the shop into a van. The second shop targeted nearby Greenfield Book Store, which stocks books from Hong Kong and Taiwan on a range of subjects.
The arrests add to two previous bookshop raids earlier this year, when workers at Hunter Store and Book Punch were detained. Elsewhere, the book fair opened on Wednesday with the two affected shops absent.
Amnesty International warned that the raids illustrate how a vague "red line" around political content threatens freedom of expression, provoking self‑censorship among booksellers and writers.
