As the annual Hong Kong Book Fair opens this week, two of the city’s best-known independent bookstores, Elmbook and Luckwin, won’t be there. On July 2, authorities barred them from exhibiting. Soon after, Elmbook announced it would close on its 30th anniversary in April 2027, when its lease ends.
While officials did not say why they barred the bookstores, Beijing-controlled media accused independent bookstores of selling books that “blatantly smear” and promote “soft resistance” against the Chinese and Hong Kong governments.
Hong Kong authorities arrested Book Punch’s Pong Yat-ming in March and Hunter Bookstore’s Leticia Wong in June for “sedition.” Both cases reportedly involve the biography of Jimmy Lai, founder of the shuttered Apple Daily and a democracy advocate serving a 20-year prison sentence for his activism.
In 2015, Apple Daily published an exposé finding that the Chinese government controls, including through shell companies, Hong Kong’s three main bookstore chains and more than 80 percent of the city’s publishing market. That year, Beijing also abducted five independent Hong Kong booksellers.
Censorship surged after Beijing imposed the draconian National Security Law on Hong Kong in 2020, following massive pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019. Since then, authorities have barred booksellers from Hong Kong’s Book Fair. Public and school libraries removed hundreds of titles deemed “sensitive,” including George Orwell’s 1984.
Since late 2023, authorities imposed tax audits on at least six independent bookstores. Courts fined Pong and Book Punch in 2026 for permit violations over Spanish classes and comedy shows.
Government harassment has forced closures. In 2024, Mount Zero Books closed after receiving warning letters from government departments and anonymous complaints. Hundreds gathered on the bookstore’s last day to bid farewell to its book talks, concerts, and community events. Another bookstore, Have a Nice Stay, similarly cited anonymous complaints and “elusive red lines” among reasons for closure.
But Hong Kongers have remained defiant. Two weeks after her arrest, Wong reopened Hunter Bookstore and adorned its window with a red heart made of sticky notes. Following news of Elmbook’s imminent closure, readers flocked to the store. Internet users created an online map of independent bookstores, while booksellers organized alternative book fairs.
