Rights group warns of 'dystopian' Hong Kong after bookstore arrests
The Hindu
Rights group warns of a "dystopian" Hong Kong after police arrest bookstore staff for selling allegedly seditious publications.
A rights group warned on Wednesday (March 25, 2026) that Hong Kong was becoming “increasingly dystopian” after police reportedly arrested a bookstore owner and his staff, and seized publications like the biography of imprisoned mogul Jimmy Lai.
Pong Yat-ming and three employees of Book Punch face allegations of selling seditious publications under Hong Kong’s 2024 national security law, local newspapers South China Morning Post and Ming Pao and broadcaster TVB reported on Tuesday (March 24), citing unnamed sources.
Officers searched the bookshop and seized various materials, including a biography of Mr. Lai, who was sentenced last month to 20 years in prison for national security crimes.
Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday (March 25) that “Hong Kong has become increasingly dystopian”.
“First, the authorities jailed the newspaper publisher, then they arrested the person selling books about him. Who’s next?” Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director, said in a statement.
“It will be the ordinary people who suffer the consequences over time,” she added.
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