BREAKING: Hong Kong police raid 2 independent bookstores, arrest 5 for alleged sedition – local media reports

Hong Kong police have raided two independent bookstores and arrested five people suspected of committing a sedition offence, local media has reported.

Outside Have a Nice Stay, a 4th floor bookstore in Prince Edward, officers were seen loading materials onto a truck during the early evening on Wednesday.

The items included 10 plastic boxes and one cardboard box, a suitcase, and a black plastic bag.

At around 5pm, police escorted a woman out of the building where the bookstore is. She was wearing a black t-shirt that indicated she worked there.

Officers did not say whether she was under arrest. HKFP have reached out to the police for comment.

The officers were already stationed downstairs of the bookstore when HKFP arrived at around 2.15pm. Ming Pao reported that plainclothes officers took plastic and cardboard boxes up to the bookstore at around 1pm.

Those who tried to go to the bookstore were stopped by officers and told to leave. According to news outlet The Collective, a person from a publishing company who came by the bookstore to drop off books had their identification information taken down.

By 4pm, about a dozen reporters had gathered outside the building.

The search came a day after Have a Nice Stay said it would shut down next month, citing financial difficulties and “unclear red lines.”

Local media reported that police conducted an operation at Greenfield Bookstore, also an independent bookshop, in Mong Kok at around the same time.

There were no police officers when HKFP arrived in the evening, but the bookstore was closed despite it being within operating hours.

‘Red lines’

Have a Nice Stay’s closure and the police’s subsequent operation at the two bookstores follows the arrest of operators at two other independent bookshops by national security police earlier this year.

Hong Kong independent bookseller Pong Yat-ming and three of his bookstore’s staff members were arrested in March on suspicion of selling seditious titles, including a biography of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

In June, owner of Hunter Bookstore Letitia Wong was arrested for allegedly displaying and selling “seditious” titles and “receiving multiple remittances from foreign political organisations.” Her husband was apprehended on suspicion of committing the same offence.

In Have a Nice Stay’s shutdown announcement, the bookstore said “unclear red lines” made it hard to determine which books may be illegal to distribute.

“The unclear red lines are certainly part of the reason,” the bookshop said in its Tuesday statement, adding that authorities have never specified which books can and cannot be legally sold in the city.

Another independent bookstore, Elmbook, announced last week that it will close its physical store. The announcement came after it and Luck Win Bookshop were reportedly banned from taking part in the annual Hong Kong Book Fair, which began on Wednesday.

State-backed newspaper Wen Wei Po has accused the two bookstores of selling titles that promote Hong Kong independence.