TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Police in Hong Kong carried out raids on two bookshops, arresting five people under suspicion of displaying and selling seditious publications, reports said Wednesday.
The move marks a third round of arrests in a clampdown on independent bookstores, with similar operations conducted in March and June.
The raids are 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 Hong Kong bookseller arrests?
According to media reports, police raided Have A Nice Stay bookshop—founded by former journalists—and Greenfield Book Store.
Footage shared by media outlets showed officers in vests marked with "Police" seizing boxes from Have A Nice Stay while the AFP news agency said its reporters saw a woman in handcuffs being taken to the van from the store.
Similar events were reported a few streets away, as boxes were carried out of the building that houses Greenfield Book Store, a video posted by The Collective online news outlet showed.
A police statement later confirmed that two stores 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 shutting down on August 30, over reasons including "uncertainties regarding the social environment" and financial difficulties.
What are the allegations against the Hong Kong booksellers?
The police said the stores were searched by the National Security Department after customs officials alerted them to the discovery of allegedly seditious books in a shipment to Hong Kong from overseas.
The police statement said the publications' content included stirring up hatred against the city's government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies.
The police did not specify the titles of the books.
They said that the five people—two men and three women—were arrested on suspicion of violating the 2024 national security law.
The offense is punishable with up to seven years in prison under Hong Kong's national security law, which was enforced in 2024 on top of a 2020 legislation imposed by China after massive pro-democracy protests.
Hong Kong's independent bookstore industry once flourished, but it has dwindled since the enactment of the sweeping security law.
In June, two employees of Hong Kong's Hunter bookstore were arrested, while four workers of the Book Punch were detained in March for selling "seditious" publications.
Hong Kong bookshop raid 'blow' to freedom of expression, says Amnesty International
Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday that the use of "sedition" offenses to target bookstores is again a demonstration of how Hong Kong's national security is "being weaponized to silence dissenting voices and eradicate spaces for free thought and debate."
"This year's escalating attacks on Hong Kong's independent bookstores hammer home the chilling reality of what the city has become: a place where you can be criminalized simply for what's on your bookshelf," Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director Sarah Brooks said.
Taiwan's Lai says bookstores protect ideas
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Thursday that every independent bookstore is an important space for safeguarding thought.
"We wish to express our concern and respect to all bookstores and cultural workers who continue to stand their ground in difficult circumstances. Thought and writing should not be imprisoned because of political pressure," Lai wrote on Facebook
China sees democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory and deems Lai a "separatist."
Read: Hong Kong Court Overturns Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai's Fraud Conviction
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