Journalist and bookseller Sum Wan-wah was arrested by Hong Kong national security police on July 15, 2026, after officers raided the Have a Nice Stay bookstore in Mong Kok district.
Police alleged that Sum and four others violated the city's Safeguarding National Security Ordinance by displaying items with “seditious intent” and selling publications with “seditious content.” Sum was later released on bail pending further investigation.
Police said that the bookstore displayed publications that incited hatred against the Hong Kong government, the judiciary, and law enforcement agencies. Officers seized a number of books during the operation, including “Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping's China,” by National Public Radio journalist Emily Feng, according to news reports.
A veteran journalist, Sum began his reporting career in 1992 and has worked for Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), Hong Kong Cable Television, and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB). He was also a visiting lecturer at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
In 2022, amid Hong Kong’s worsening press freedom climate, Sum co-founded Have a Nice Stay with four other journalists “after losing their jobs,” according to the bookstore’s website, which is now offline.
The bookstore said one of its missions was to promote journalism and literary reportage. In 2023, it launched the online magazine Leave Blank to “reclaim the identity of being journalists.”
Hong Kong authorities have targeted journalists, publishers, booksellers, and independent cultural institutions since Beijing imposed the National Security Law in 2020 and the city enacted its homegrown Article 23 legislation in 2024.
The Hong Kong government did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment about the case.