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The Economist on ‘NatSec theatre’ and invisible red lines
['Posted On', 'Chinese Netizen', 'Omnibus Man', 'Joe Blow']
Big Lychee, Various Sectors
After the contraband came the suspect: a bespectacled woman, with a T-shirt printed “I am a bookstore employee”.
The raid on “Have a Nice Stay”, a bookstore in Hong Kong’s trendy Mong Kok district, on July 15th was part of the Hong Kong government’s campaign against retailers of the printed word.
Outside the half-closed shutter of the nearby Greenfield bookstore, two plainclothes police officers brusquely told your correspondent to shove off.
The day before the raids “Have a Nice Stay” said it was closing, as it could not navigate the government’s “unclear red lines”.
The police’s enormous haul suggests they might not know where the lines are either.