Beijing is moving fast to silence criticism after Hong Kong’s worst fire in nearly 80 years, arresting activists, scrubbing petitions and warning the public against what authorities call “anti-China and pro-chaos elements”.
Hong Kong’s national security police detained three people over the weekend, according to state-backed and commercial media. Among them: former district councillor Kenneth Cheung Kam-hung, accused of “attempting to incite discord”, and a volunteer who helped coordinate supplies for fire survivors.
The arrests came just a day after police detained Miles Kwan, a 24-year-old Chinese University of Hong Kong student who had launched an online petition demanding transparency and an independent inquiry into the fire, including whether conflicts of interest factored into the disaster.
Before it was taken down on Saturday, the petition had gathered over 10,000 signatures.
China’s national security office signalled its position immediately, accusing petition organisers of using the “banner of ‘petitioning the people’ to incite confrontation and tear society apart”.
Hong Kong’s Office for Safeguarding National Security echoed the warning, accusing unnamed figures with “sinister intentions” of trying to drag the city back into the “black-clad violence” of the 2019 protests.
Beijing-backed outlet Wen Wei Po went further on Monday, publishing a hard-line commentary urging the public to be alert to “anti-government elements” allegedly exploiting the fire.
“They have even gone so far as to ‘act as representatives’… all in an attempt to incite public unrest,” the paper wrote. “Their actions are utterly devoid of conscience and humanity.”
The fire, now the deadliest since 1948, has sparked rare public frustration in Hong Kong, where families of victims and community volunteers continue to demand answers about safety lapses, the renovation conditions, and the government’s slow emergency response.
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