Five people suspected of selling and displaying books deemed “seditious” in Hong Kong were arrested after police raided two independent bookstores.

Authorities said the posts incited “hatred” against the territory’s government, judiciary and law enforcement. Agents confiscated books at both stores, the government said in a statement.

The group, made up of two men aged 37 and 57 and three women aged between 30 and 59, are suspected of violating national security legislation by “acting with seditious intentions”.

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

Officials did not name the businesses raided by police. Journalists from the AFP news agency saw officers carrying a handcuffed woman from the Have A Nice Stay bookstore to a van.

The store in the city’s densely populated Mong Kok area was founded in 2022 by a group of former journalists and stocks literature on democracy, authoritarianism and media literacy.

The raid came a day after it announced it would close in August, citing financial reasons and what it called an “elusive ‘red line'” about what material is considered problematic.

Local media reported that the nearby Greenfield bookstore was also attacked.

On its Facebook page, the store says it sells books from Hong Kong and Taiwan, covering “literature, history, philosophy, art, sociology and self-improvement.”

Neither company will attend this year’s Hong Kong Book Fair, which opened on Wednesday.

In 2026 there have been two more raids on bookstores in Hong Kong. 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 indicated “the chilling reality the city has become: a place where you can be criminalized simply for what you have on your shelf.”

He said uncertainty over “so-called ‘red lines'” had left booksellers and writers “guessing which titles could lead to a criminal investigation, arrest or closure”, sparking fear and self-censorship.