Authorities clamp down on dissent after deadliest blaze in decades
Lee promised a judge-led committee would independently investigate the blaze, following suspicions that flammable foam and netting used in the tower’s renovations had accelerated the blaze, fire alarms were not triggered and residents’ complaints were ignored.
Police have detained 21 people so far. 15 of these are affiliated with construction companies that renovate the towers, and 6 of them are from fire alarm installation contractor companies.
Fire and rescue teams worked for two days to extinguish the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district. Credit: Daniel Ceng
But some critics have pointed out that this judge-led inquiry may not carry the same weight as a commission of inquiry, which has court-like powers and has been the standard way of investigating deadly tragedies in Hong Kong in the past.
On Wednesday, Beijing’s national security office in the city stepped up its aggressive warnings, targeting exiled Hong Kongers and those collaborating with “hostile foreign forces” and vowing to be punished “no matter how far away they are.”
Melbourne-based academic and activist Kevin Yam, who has a HK$1 million ($194,000) bounty on his head from Hong Kong authorities, said people were being targeted for making calls similar to those made by survivors of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London.
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“Even while Hong Kong is still in mourning, both Beijing and Hong Kong have decided to treat all calls for thorough investigation and accountability as a national security threat,” Yam said.
Nathan Law, a former member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council who is now in England, questioned whether the suppression of democracy played a role in the fire, given that residents of the towers had repeatedly complained about the building materials used in the renovations.
“Questions would be tabled in the legislature, senior officials would be summoned to meet with interested groups and explain the issues,” Law wrote in London. Telegram. “Independent media will produce an investigative report and the public will not have to worry about punishment for speaking out.”
Last week saw tightening control in the area around Wang Fuk Courthouse. One of the authorities’ first targets was a donation center that emerged organically in a public square near the fire-destroyed towers in the Tai Po district.
People had come to volunteer after seeing calls for support circulating on social media and in Signal and WhatsApp groups; these mobilization efforts mirrored those used in mass pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
Dozens of Hong Kong police officers arrive to comb the temporary donation center near the Wang Fuk Court towers. A state-sponsored newspaper would later claim that pro-democracy activists had hijacked the relief effort. Credit: Daniel Ceng
On Friday, two days after the fires started, donations started pouring in. Hundreds of people gathered in the square and rummaged through boxes of clothes and belongings, while volunteers distributed food, bedding, toiletries and Chinese medicine. A rumor began to circulate among the crowd that the police were on their way.
Shortly before 6 p.m. that day, about 40 police officers gathered in the residential area, marched up the stairs and swept the square as news reporters scrambled to record what appeared to be a harsh crackdown against a healthy public response.
It was seen that the police did not take action immediately, but the site was dispersed by the morning.
“This is a sign of the times when something like this becomes sensitive,” Chen, a social worker who requested that only her last name be used, said the next day. He had come to the site to pay tribute to the victims and offer support services.
Volunteers handing out clothes to affected residents before the donation center was dispersed by police. Credit: Daniel Ceng
“Hong Kongers are united, and that hasn’t changed since 2019,” he said.
state-sponsored newspaper Tai Kung Pao He claimed that “remnants of black-clad rioters and pro-democracy activists mingled with well-intentioned citizens” and police believed they were hijacking relief efforts “to sow discord and carry out anti-China conspiracies.”
Police tents were quickly erected where the donation stalls were located. An immigrant advocacy center opened in the square to help Indonesian and Filipino workers displaced by the fires said they were asked to move elsewhere after residents complained about the noise.
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Even the locals weren’t buying it.
“Don’t believe what you hear,” said an elderly resident. “It’s always noisy here and residents are used to it. This is about government control.”
Thousands of people flocked to Tai Po on Sunday to lay flowers and leave handwritten messages in memory of those who died, including political messages.
