Hong Kong was once home to one of Asia’s most freewheeling book markets, with shops selling everything from exposes of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown to critiques of the deadly famine precipitated by the Great Leap Forward in the early 1960s. But in the years since Beijing began tightening its grip on the city, Chinese authorities have targeted publishers and bookshops as part of its effort to stamp out dissent. The latest incident came this week, when Hong Kong police raided two independent bookstores for carrying what authorities branded as seditious books. One of the bookshops, Have a Nice Stay, which once carried books on protest movements in Hong Kong and mainland China as well as tomes by Chinese dissidents, also said this week that it would shut. It was impossible to operate given the lack of a lack of clarity on what books might violate the law, it said, noting security officials wouldn’t specify which books are illegal.

Full report : China Wields Security Laws to Cow Hong Kong’s Once-Free Literary Scene.