The Closure of Hong Kong’s Bookshops Shows That Beijing is Tightening its Grip

Turning off Peking Road into Lock Road this week in the busy Kowloon district of Tsim Sha Tsui (TST to locals) in Hong Kong I could see that my worst fears were confirmed. The Swindon Book Company Ltd was no longer there.

A colleague had warned me that it was likely to have been closed as bookstores were closing – or being closed – regularly in Hong Kong. He was right and, in fact, Swindon’s had closed in 2020. I had just not had time, on recent trips to Hong Kong, to visit.

Adjacent to one of my favourite bars, Swindon’s used to be a regular Sunday afternoon haunt. Covering two shopfronts and occupying two floors, Swindon’s was packed with books in both English and Chinese. Since the 1997 handover and the creeping influence of the mainland in Hong Kong affairs, I was frequently astonished at the titles they displayed. Many were frankly critical of China and Chinese Communism.

Over the many years I have worked in Hong Kong I had noticed the creeping influence of censorship and the silencing of dissident voices. First, the HK Magazine – which hilariously dismantled the puffed-up politicians on the Legislative Council and poked fun at mainland China – disappeared in 2016. It was a free publication supported by advertising and it featured a double page spread of photographs of Hong Kongers and expatriates behaving badly, usually in Lan Kwai Fong, the main area for bars and nightclubs. Once freely distributed around bars, including my favourite one, the HK Magazine must have shamed more than a few of the sons and daughters of the local tycoons caught in compromising situations. One presumes they gave their consent, at the time.

Also, over the years, I have witnessed the demise of the South China Morning Post (SCMP), from its once cutting-edge journalism and fearless criticism of the mainland rulers to its current state. To anyone familiar with its former editorial independence, it is now almost unreadable and packed with Chinese propaganda. Once visible everywhere on bookstalls and 7/11 shops, you hardly see it for sale now. You are more likely to find a copy of the Financial Times in Central district of Hong Kong Island than a copy of the once ubiquitous SCMP.

Alarm bells sounded in 2015 when five booksellers associated with Causeway Bay Books, known for selling books critical of China, disappeared for over a year. They had been taken to mainland China and held in custody there. All were released, but one was arrested again and remains in Chinese custody. In 2018, the People’s Book Café, which stocked books banned in China, closed. The Guardian reported the incident and, according to its sources, the bookstore closed “under pressure from the government”.

The last British Governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, was allegedly banned for thousands of years by the Chinese government. However, it is hard to confirm the rumours, and the length of the ban extends from 1,000 to 10,000 years. Nevertheless, he did return to Hong Kong to promote his book on his time here. But, presumably in fear of the consequences, leading bookstores in Hong Kong refused to stock the book.

There are few formal studies of the state of the bookstore industry in Hong Kong but, in 2025, academics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Utrecht University publishing in Social Sciences and Humanities Open painted an optimistic picture of the growth of independent bookshops in Hong Kong between 2019 and 2022 from 48 to 87. This year, Zolima CityMag published an article on the growth of independent bookstores, likewise, painting an optimistic picture. However, it is not explained why these survive or what they stock that keeps them below the radar of the censors.

It can only be assumed surviving bookstores stock material that is not politically sensitive or that express support for the way things are in Hong Kong. Speaking to Chinese Hong Kong colleagues, they told me that staying silent is not sufficient. People in positions of responsibility must express their support for the Chinese Government and the changes taking place in Hong Kong.

As if to hammer home the message, only this week a leading bookstore Have a Nice Stay closed. Locally this was reported as being for financial reasons but the fact that five of the staff were arrested suggests, once again, the long arm of mainland Chinese censorship has struck.

I happen to be filing this piece from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) in Hong Kong. The club conducts an annual Press Freedom Survey and the full results are published in its quarterly magazine the Correspondent. They make sobering reading.

It is interesting to note, while the pool of potential respondents – members of the FCC who are either journalists or correspondents – has declined, the percentage of respondents has increased. Since the previous survey in 2025, nearly 70% of respondents reported that the environment for journalists in Hong Kong had changed for the worse. Nearly 70% had either “slightly” or “considerably” self-censored their work.

In addition, 35% had either “slightly” or “considerably” experienced censorship by their outlets and 50% reported that sources were less willing to be quoted. Most media organisations had downsized and, while only 10% had experienced digital surveillance, 80% were concerned about it. This does beg the question of how anyone would know if they were being digitally surveilled. In terms of being arrested, 60% of respondents were either “slightly” or “very” concerned about being arrested in connection with their work and 60% had a “clear sense of what subjects were sensitive”.

Looking back, the closure of Swindon’s now seems symbolic. It was never just another bookshop. It represented the confidence that Hong Kong once had in free inquiry and free expression. As the shutters came down on stores like Swindon’s, they also came down on an important part of Hong Kong itself. In the remaining bookstores the shelves remain full, but every book tells the same story.

John MacNab teaches at a university in Hong Kong.