Chinese authorities have arrested scores of activists and issued a stern warning against “anti-China and pro-anarchist elements” amid criticism of the government’s response to Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in a generation.
Hong Kong’s national security police arrested three people over the weekend, state-backed and commercial media reported, amid calls for accountability after the city’s worst fire in nearly eight decades.
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Authorities arrested former district councilor Kenneth Cheung Kam-hung and an unidentified volunteer who provided supplies for the survivors on Sunday, according to multiple reports, a day after a university student was arrested on suspicion of treason. Cheung was arrested on suspicion of “attempting to incite controversy,” The Standard newspaper reported.
On Saturday, authorities arrested Miles Kwan, a 24-year-old student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, after he created an online petition demanding more transparency and accountability from the government, multiple reports said.
The petition includes four demands, including the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the fire, including whether potential conflicts of interest contributed to the disaster.
The petition had more than 10,000 supporters before it was pulled from the internet on Saturday.
China’s National Security Office in Hong Kong appeared to condemn the petition before removing it, accusing activists of “using the banner of ‘people’s petition’ to incite conflict and tear society apart”.
Hong Kong’s Office for the Protection of National Security accused individuals with “sinister intentions” of taking advantage of the fire to return the city to “black-clothed violence” that erupted during massive anti-government protests in 2019.
On Monday, a commentary in the Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper urged the public to be vigilant against “anti-government elements” with “malicious intentions”.
“They have gone so far as to set up a so-called ‘concern group’ to ‘act as representatives’, present the so-called ‘Four Demands’, distribute leaflets and launch petitions, in an attempt to incite public unrest,” the commentary said.
“Their actions are completely devoid of conscience and humanity.”
‘disgraceful’
The crackdown is the latest sign of the waning of discontent in Hong Kong after Beijing overhauled the semi-autonomous region’s political and legal landscape in response to 2019 demonstrations.
China has repeatedly denied that Hong Kong’s civil liberties have eroded, with the passage of two far-reaching national security laws ensuring that residents’ rights and freedoms are “better protected” than before.
Beijing has also argued that the law ensures Hong Kong’s continued partial autonomy under “one country, two systems”, the arrangement under which the UK returned the territory to China in 1997.
Nathan Law, an activist and critic of Beijing who served in Hong Kong’s legislature, called the authorities’ actions “outrageous” and the latest example of “extremely authoritarian tendencies” in the former British colony.
“The government’s aim is to create a chilling effect by arresting these individuals. Any civil action without government permission is now illegal,” Law, who lives in self-exile in the UK and is wanted by Hong Kong authorities on national security charges, told Al Jazeera.
“The government cares about people coming together and starting collective action, whether it’s political or not.”
The Hong Kong Police Force did not respond to a request for comment.
Ronnie Tong, a non-government member of Hong Kong’s de facto cabinet, disputed suggestions that officials were stifling criticism of the government’s handling of the disaster.
“If you look at the major newspapers in Hong Kong, there are many different suggestions and… criticisms of the handling of the incident in Hong Kong, so there is by no means a general suppression of dissenting views or criticism of the government,” Tong told Al Jazeera.
Tong said it was inappropriate to comment on the cases of people who had yet to face judicial process, but the law allowed for “constructive” criticism of authorities.
“One should not make a case of some arrests – the circumstances of which are still unclear – to conclude that the Hong Kong government is trying to suppress opinions it does not like,” he said.
At least 151 people were killed Wednesday in a fire at an upscale apartment complex in Hong Kong’s northern Tai Po district, the city’s deadliest fire since at least 1948.
The scale of the disaster has prompted scrutiny of safety standards in Hong Kong’s construction industry, with authorities using substandard materials in renovation work on the block helping the fire spread quickly.
Hong Kong authorities have arrested 13 people as part of an investigation into the fire, including the director of an engineering consultancy firm involved in the renovation.
Commission of Inquiry
While Hong Kong police and the city’s Independent Commission Against Corruption have launched separate investigations, the government has not yet indicated whether it will set up an independent commission of inquiry.
Hong Kong authorities launched the Commission of Inquiry in response to a series of past disasters, a legacy of British rule in the territory.
Past inquests, which have typically been led by judges, have included a 2012 ferry accident that killed 39 people and a 1996 fire that killed 41 people.
Kevin Yam, a former lawyer in Hong Kong, said Beijing could not tolerate public criticism of the official response to the fire because of concerns that “a small spark of dissent could snowball into something bigger”.
“Those who have read George Orwell know the phrase, ‘Those who control the past control the present, and those who control the present control the future.’ And the Chinese Communist Party has always been very good at that,” Yam, who is wanted by Hong Kong authorities for national security offences, told Al Jazeera.
“They see that once they silence dissent and criticism and then flood the zone with favorable stories about how they handled things, it becomes the official record of history.”
Once known for its rabid media, vibrant civil society and political diversity, Hong Kong has dramatically reduced the space for dissent since the 2019 protests.
Under the law, which has been widely condemned by foreign governments and rights groups, authorities have forced the closure of critical media outlets, effectively removed opposition parties from the city’s legislature and banned politically sensitive protests.
The mainland Chinese and Hong Kong governments have defended the laws as a proportionate response to anti-government protests, which began peacefully before descending into street battles between protesters and police and other national security threats facing the region.
In a speech in June marking the fifth anniversary of the 2020 law, Beijing’s top official for Hong Kong affairs, Xia Baolong, called the law a “protector” of the city’s semi-autonomous status and stability.