Hong Kong police raid 2 indie bookstores, arrest several over national security
Have a Nice Stay bookshop in Prince Edward and Greenfield Book Store in Mong Kok targeted by national security police
Hong Kong police arrested multiple people and seized books during a raid on two independent bookshops on Wednesday, the South China Morning Post has learned.
A source told the SCMP that national security police searched Have a Nice Stay bookshop in Prince Edward and Greenfield Book Store in Mong Kok.
Officers seized books and made multiple arrests during the operation.
Both shops are independently owned and focus on books related to the humanities. They have not taken part in the city’s annual book fair at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, which opened its doors on Wednesday.
Have a Nice Stay was founded in 2022 by a few former reporters. The shop, located in a walk-up building in Prince Edward, sells books related to journalism studies as well as the broader humanities and social sciences.
The bookstore had announced its impending closure on Tuesday, with owners writing on Instagram that the shop would cease operations on August 30, citing a variety of reasons including financial losses and unclear red lines over what books would be considered “problematic”.