The burnt-out towers of the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex were still smouldering when Hong Kong authorities shifted gear.
As grief turned to anger at the scale of the loss of life, officials moved quickly to stamp out percolating political dissent, using the national security rationale and tools that had brought Hong Kong to heel under Beijing’s control five years earlier.
Police carry bodies of victims out of Wang Fuk Court on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images
The city’s deadliest fire in decades, which has so far claimed 159 lives, with 31 people still missing, occurred just before Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election, which will be held on Sunday.
It will be the second election since Beijing’s national security crackdown in 2020 quashed political dissent in the city, when hundreds of opposition legislators, pro-democracy activists, media figures and trade unionists were arrested. Since then, the electoral process has been overhauled to permit a “patriots”-only system of government.
Nonetheless, the fire has stoked Hong Kong authorities’ anxieties about a resurgence of political activism, with the disaster serving as a test of whether the city’s once-vibrant civic life could still mobilise after five years.
By Sunday, authorities had detained at least two people for criticising the government’s response, as Beijing warned it would take action against anyone who used the fire to “plunge” Hong Kong back into “chaos”.
University student Miles Kwan, 24, was arrested for “seditious intention” after launching a petition with four demands for government accountability over the fires, which quickly amassed 10,000 signatures before it was taken down. Former Hong Kong district councillor Kenneth Cheung was detained after he made critical comments on social media.
When asked about the arrests this week, the city’s chief executive, John Lee, told a press conference that he would not “tolerate any crimes” that “exploit the tragedy that we are facing now”.
Lee has promised that a judge-led committee will independently investigate the fire, amid suspicions that flammable foam and mesh used in the tower’s renovations accelerated the blaze, the fire alarms weren’t triggered, and residents’ complaints were brushed aside.
The police have so far arrested 21 people. Of those, 15 are connected to construction companies undertaking renovations at the towers, and six are from the fire alarm installation contractor.
Fire and rescue services worked for two days to extinguish the blaze at Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district. Credit: Daniel Ceng
However, some critics have pointed out that this judge-led probe may not carry the same weight as a commission of inquiry, which has powers similar to a court and has in the past been the standard way of investigating fatal tragedies in Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, Beijing’s national security office in the city stepped up its aggressive warnings, taking aim at exiled Hongkongers and those who collaborated with “hostile foreign forces”, vowing they would be punished “no matter how far away” they might be.
Melbourne-based academic and activist Kevin Yam, who has a $HK1 million ($194,000) bounty on his head from Hong Kong authorities, said people were being targeted for calling for similar things that survivors of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London called for.
“Even while Hong Kong is still in mourning, both Beijing and Hong Kong decided to treat all calls for thorough investigation and accountability as national security threats,” Yam said.
Nathan Law, a former member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council now based in Britain, questioned whether the stifling of democracy had played a role in the fire, given that residents in the towers had repeatedly complained about the construction materials used in the renovations.
“Questions would have been tabled in the legislative chamber, senior officials would have been summoned to meet with the concerned groups and explain the issues,” Law wrote in London’s Telegraph. “Independent media would conduct an investigative report, and the public need not worry about retribution for speaking out.”
The tightening control was visible in the precinct around the Wang Fuk Court site last week. An early target for authorities was a donations hub, which sprang up organically in a public square near the fire-destroyed towers in the Tai Po neighbourhood.
People had come to volunteer after seeing callouts for support circulating on social media and Signal and WhatsApp groups – mobilisation efforts that echoed those used in the massive pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
Dozens of Hong Kong police officers arrive to conduct a sweep of a pop-up donations hub near the Wang Fuk Court towers. A state-backed newspaper would later claim that pro-democracy activists were hijacking relief efforts. Credit: Daniel Ceng
By Friday, two days after the fires began, the donations had flooded in. Several hundred people had amassed in the square, combing through boxes of clothing and goods, while volunteers handed out food, bedding, toiletries, and Chinese medicine. A rumour began circulating through the crowds that police were on their way.
Shortly before 6pm that day, about 40 police officers assembled at the housing precinct, marched up the stairs, and swept through the square as news reporters scrambled to record what appeared to be a heavy-handed crackdown on a wholesome community response.
The police appeared to take no immediate action, but by morning the site had been disbanded.
“It’s a sign of the times that something like this has become sensitive,” Chen, a social worker who requested to use only her surname, said the next day. She had come to the site to pay tribute to the victims and offer her support services.
Volunteers distributing clothes to affected residents before the donations hub was disbanded by police. Credit: Daniel Ceng
“Hongkongers are united, and that hasn’t changed since 2019,” she said.
State-backed newspaper Tai Kung Pao claimed that “remnants of the black-clad rioters and pro-democracy activists mingled among the well-meaning citizens” and police believed they were hijacking relief efforts “to sow discord and carry out anti-China” conspiracies.
Police tents were soon erected where the donation stalls had stood. A migrant advocacy centre, which had popped up in the square to assist Indonesian and Filipino workers displaced by the fires, said they were asked to relocate after residents made noise complaints.
Even locals weren’t buying this.
“Don’t believe what you hear,” one elderly resident said. “This place is always noisy, and residents are used to it. This is about government control.”
As thousands of people poured into Tai Po to lay flowers and leave handwritten messages in tribute to the dead on Sunday, political messages were peppered among them.
“The problem is with the system, and God is watching,” one note read.
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