Hong Kong: The truth behind the Tai Po fire comes to light
The regime unleashes its full-scale crackdown.
Li Yong China Labor Forum 1 December 2025
With 151 dead and 150 still missing, the Tai Po fire has become one of the most devastating disasters in Hong Kong's history. As more information and evidence emerge, it is now clear that this was a completely preventable man-made catastrophe. Negligence and corruption within government departments, collusion between pro-establishment (pro-China) DAB district councilors and repair contractors, and falsification of fire safety inspection reports for scaffolding and fencing are all blatantly exposed. As public anger boiled over, the CCP and the Hong Kong government immediately activated their repressive apparatus, attempting to nip any discontent or resistance in the bud. Reports indicate that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) garrison in Hong Kong has been placed on high alert to deal with any potential uprising.
Two days after the fire, Kwan Ching-fung, a student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, launched an online petition and distributed leaflets outside Tai Po Railway Station, outlining four demands: continued support for affected residents, the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry, a review of the project's oversight system, and accountability for government officials. However, even these relatively mild demands were immediately met with a crackdown by the Chinese Communist Party and the Hong Kong government, which is merely an extension of the Chinese authoritarian regime. Within a day, Kwan was arrested by the National Security Department of the police on charges of "sedition."
The National Security Office also issued a menacing statement, calling it a "malicious attack on the Hong Kong SAR government's rescue efforts" and vowing to "severely punish" those responsible. This reveals that in the eyes of an authoritarian regime, the targets of "severe punishment" are not derelict or corrupt officials, but rather the public seeking the truth. This is reminiscent of Zhao Lianhai, the parent of a child harmed by tainted milk powder in China, and Tan Zuoren, who investigated shoddy construction work after the Sichuan earthquake.
Similarly, spontaneously set up supply stations and relief stations were forcibly removed and banned. Within half a day of the fire, a large number of people spontaneously donated food, clothing, and winter supplies and personally delivered them to the vicinity of the disaster site, setting up supply stations and relief stations on the Guangfu Village platform to distribute aid to the victims. This was reminiscent of the same scene during the 2019 mass movement against police brutality and authoritarian rule. As a result, the police were on high alert, and the government's so-called "care team" shamelessly demanded to take over the supply stations and threatened to call the police on charges of "illegal assembly" if people did not leave.
At 4 a.m. on November 29, police suddenly ordered the clearing of the area, leaving the public with no choice but to move the mountains of supplies that had been piled up overnight. By the afternoon of that day, the square, which had originally been providing supplies and emotional support to the disaster victims, was completely empty. The CCP and the Hong Kong government felt that public anger was already on the verge of exploding, and therefore nervously tried to prevent all spontaneous or independently organized gatherings of the public in order to extinguish any "sparks."
The iron fist of repression not only struck the people, but even the CCP mouthpiece, *Ta Kung Pao*. On the 28th, *Ta Kung Pao* published an article titled "Unveiling the Dark Secrets Behind Scaffolding Repairs," reporting on exorbitant repair fees, bid-rigging, and corruption involving bribery. However, the report was hastily taken down within a day, and the website link was deleted. This is highly ironic. *Ta Kung Pao* was certainly not a neutral and innocent bystander in this disaster, but rather an indirect accomplice. On February 28, 2023, *Ta Kung Pao* published an article titled "'Yellow Forces' Continue to Infiltrate Housing Estates, Residents' Safety Threatened," attacking residents dissatisfied with exorbitant construction costs and questioning bid-rigging as "smearing the corporation" and "inciting residents to overturn the repair project." The same authoritarian mentality led to the punishment and silencing of Dr. Li Wenliang in 2020; had his warnings been heeded then, it might have helped contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
Socialists and chinaworker.info demand an immediate halt to the suppression of spontaneous mourning and mutual aid activities by the public and disaster victims, the immediate release of those arrested for publicly supporting the victims or organizing aid to the victims, an end to censorship, the repeal of the National Security Law, and an independent and open democratic investigation into the fire.
The Hung Fook Yuen fire is the latest crime committed by this corrupt authoritarian capitalist system that still packages itself as "communism." Police repression cannot forever quell the tide of public anger and discontent, which needs to be united through organized mass struggles in both Hong Kong and mainland China.
https://chinaworker.info/zh-hant/2025/12/01/48364/
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