Five people suspected of selling and displaying books deemed “seditious” in Hong Kong have been arrested after police raided two independent bookshops.
Authorities said the publications incited “hatred” against the territory’s government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies. Officers seized books from both shops, the government said in a statement.
The group – two men aged 37 and 57, and three women aged between 30 and 59 – are suspected of violating national security legislation by “acting with seditious intent”.
They are currently being held for investigation. If convicted, they could face up to seven years in prison.
Officials did not name the businesses raided by police. Reporters from the AFP news agency saw officers leading a woman in handcuffs the Have A Nice Stay bookshop into a van.
The shop in the city’s densely packed Mong Kok area was founded in 2022 by a group of former journalists, stocking literature on democracy, authoritarianism and media literacy.
The raid came a day after it announced it would be shutting down in August, citing financial reasons and what it called an “elusive ‘red line'” over what material is considered problematic.
Local media reported the nearby Greenfield Book Store was also targeted.
On its Facebook page, the shop says it stocks books from Hong Kong and Taiwan, covering “literature, history, philosophy, art, sociology and self-improvement”.
Neither business is attending this year’s Hong Kong Book Fair, which opened on Wednesday.
There have been two other raids on bookshops in Hong Kong in 2026. Two workers were arrested at the Hunter store in June, and a further four were arrested from Book Punch in March.
Amnesty International said the raids indicated “the chilling reality of what the city has become: a place where you can be criminalised simply for what’s on your bookshelf”.
It said uncertainty over “so-called ‘red lines'” had left booksellers and writers “guessing which titles could lead to criminal investigation, arrest or closure” – resulting in fear and self-censorship.
