Three Hong Kong independent booksellers released on bail after sedition arrests, raids

Three staff members of independent bookstores, who were arrested on suspicion of committing a sedition offence on Wednesday, have been released on bail, according to local media.

Co-founder of Have a Nice Stay bookstore Sum Wan-wah leaving North Point police station on July 17, 2026. Photo: Supplied.

The three booksellers from Have a Nice Stay left the police stations they were being held on Friday morning.

Sum Wan-wah, a co-founder of the bookstore, was seen leaving North Point police station, according to The Collective. He was wearing a T-shirt that read in Chinese: “the earth has no roads to begin with, but when many people walk, a road is made,” a quote attributed to Chinese writer Lu Xun.

Another bookseller from Have a Nice Stay, Mandy, left Cheung Sha Wan police station at around 10.30am, The Witness reported. A video of her leaving showed plainclothes officers escorting her as photographers took pictures.

Local media reported that another co-founder who was arrested and held at a police station in Hung Hom was also released on Friday.

The staircase leading up to independent bookstore Have a Nice Stay on July 15, 2026. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

The three booksellers were among five who were apprehended by national security police on Wednesday during raids on two independent bookshops, including Have a Nice Stay and Greenfield Bookstore.

Authorities said in a statement that they were suspected of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention,” an offence under Article 23, the city’s homegrown security law.

Among the five were two males aged 37 and 57, and three females aged between 30 and 59.

It is unclear if the two people from Greenfield Bookstore have been released yet.

A day before the arrests, Have a Nice Stay had announced that it would close in August, citing “red lines” and financial struggles.

Greenfield Bookstore in Mong Kok on July 15, 2026. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Founded by former journalists in 2022, the bookstore aimed to provide a community for book lovers and promote journalism.

In a statement after the arrests, US-based NGO Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for the release of the booksellers: “Using national security legislation to go after another bookstore run by journalists is an attack on press freedom and independent publishing in the city,” CPJ Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi said.

However, Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang said on Thursday that booksellers had the responsibility to ensure the titles they sell do not threaten national security. He said the “law is clear,” but a list of banned books would not be supplied as people could evade detection by changing the wording of titles.

Books seized

According to a government statement, the police investigation found items on display, and sale, at the bookstores that carried seditious intent. Their contents could stir hatred against the Hong Kong government, the Judiciary and law enforcement bodies, they claimed.

Police officers outside the building of Have a Nice Stay, on July 15, 2026. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Officers also seized books that allegedly had seditious intention.

On Wednesday, HKFP witnessed police outside Have a Nice Stay loading materials onto a truck. The items included 10 plastic boxes and one cardboard box, a suitcase, and a black plastic bag.

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.

Police loaded materials understood to have been taken from Have a Nice Stay onto a truck. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

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

Pong Yat-ming, who owns Book Punch, 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.

The maximum sentence for doing an act with a seditious intention under the homegrown Safeguarding National Security Ordinance is up to seven years imprisonment. It increases to 10 years behind bars if the offence is committed in collusion with an “external force.”