Five arrested after raids on two independent bookstores in Hong Kong

Five people suspected of selling and displaying “subversive” books in Hong Kong have been arrested after police raided two independent bookshops.

Officials said the publications had fueled “animosity” against the state government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies. The government announced in a statement that books were seized from both shops.

The group – two men aged 37 and 57 and three women aged 30 to 59 – are suspected of breaching the National Security Act by “acting with violent intent”.

They are currently detained for investigation. If convicted, they could face up to seven years in prison.

Officials did not release the names of the businesses raided by police. AFP news agency reporters saw officers being handcuffed and put into a van inside a bookstore in Ha Ness.

The shop, located in the city’s densely packed Mong Kok area, opened in 2011. Founded in 2022 by a group of former journalists, they stock articles on democracy, dictatorship and mass media.

A day after announcing that the raid would close in August, he cited financial reasons and called the material a “red line that doesn’t work” as a problem.

Local media reported that the nearby Greenfield Bookstore was also targeted.

The store says on its Facebook page that it carries books from Hong Kong and Taiwan on “literature, history, philosophy, art, sociology and self-improvement”.

Neither business will be present at this year’s Hong Kong Book Fair, which opens Wednesday.

In the year In 2026, two other raids on Hong Kong bookstores took place. Two workers were arrested at the Hunter store in June, and four others were arrested at Book Punch in March.

Amnesty International said the raids “show the terrible reality of the city: a place where you can become a criminal just because of what’s on your bookshelf.”

Uncertainty about so-called “red lines” led booksellers and writers to “guess which titles might lead to criminal investigations, arrests, or closures” – resulting in fear and self-censorship.