Hong Kong police raided a bookstore run by former journalists on Wednesday, arresting five people under the city's national security law. Officers targeted the Have A Nice Stay bookshop and another location, the Greenfield Book Store.
Police said their National Security Department acted after being alerted to books with "seditious intention" in a shipment from overseas. The offence carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
The operation came one day after Have A Nice Stay announced it would close in August, citing a difficult social and financial environment. This is the third raid on independent booksellers in Hong Kong this year.
The bookstore was founded in 2022 by former journalists. Its stock often focuses on media literacy, democratic development, and authoritarianism. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the raids, urging authorities to stop treating publishing as a national security threat.