When university student Miles Kwan launched a petition demanding answers from Hong Kong authorities after one of the city’s deadliest fires last week, he was arrested.
The ferocious blaze had ravaged a densely populated housing estate in the northern Tai Po district, killing at least 159 people and displacing thousands.
As public anger grew, the pro-Beijing authorities warned, repeatedly, against attempts to “exploit” the fire to “endanger national security”.
Kwan was reportedly arrested by Hong Kong national security police on suspicion of sedition. He is now on bail, according to local media.
Police told the BBC that it “would handle any action taken in accordance with the law and the actual circumstances”.
To some, the decision to arrest him was “baffling”. To others, it was simply Beijing’s playbook, replicated. But the Hong Kong government says that it’s about trying to protect rule of law in a testing moment for the city.
‘A human response to tragedy’
Ronny Tong, a member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council, disputed the suggestion that Hong Kongers are being suppressed. “The government is trying to be prudent,” he tells the BBC.
Regina Ip, another Hong Kong lawmaker, also defended the arrests. Authorities are being “extra careful” that public anger does not lead to a “recurrence of the 2019 riots”, she told the BBC’s Newshour radio programme.
Among the questions in the petition and being asked by many Hong Kongers include how the blaze could have swept through the buildings so rapidly and whether any government officials should be held responsible.
“You have to differentiate genuine expressions of opinion from petitions with criminal intent. That is what our courts will have to find out,” Ip added.
Kwan’s petition, which listed “four demands” – echoing the “five demands, not one less” slogan that rallied protesters in 2019 – gathered more than 10,000 signatures in less than a day before it was taken down.
Days later, the city’s leader, John Lee, said Hong Kong would “go all out” to support victims and investigate the blaze.
He announced a number of actions such as the convening of an independent committee into the fire, a review of the building works system, and temporary accommodation and financial aid to victims.
Many of these were what people were calling for already, and they also formed a part of Kwan’s petition.
“It’s baffling how Miles was [arrested] for asking basic questions on behalf of many residents, which the government went on to address anyway,” said Samuel Chu, a pro-democracy activist who reposted Kwan’s petition on a separate platform.
In the past week, authorities have also arrested 15 people on suspicion of manslaughter and ordered the removal of mesh netting from all buildings undergoing renovations after investigators found that the one wrapped around the charred complex did not meet flame-retardant standards.
Separately, one woman has been arrested for trying to profit from the crisis using a fake fundraising campaign.
China’s national security office in Hong Kong swung into action swiftly after last week’s disaster, warning that it would take action against anyone trying to instigate “black terror” – a phrase Beijing had used to describe the 2019 protests.
In a more strongly-worded statement this week, it vowed to punish “hostile foreign forces… no matter how far away” they may be.
Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said he would “ensure justice is [served]” to anyone who tries to “sabotage” relief efforts.
Former district councillor Kenneth Cheung, who was among those arrested, reportedly by national security police, says authorities took issue with content he re-shared on Facebook following the fire.
“The Tai Po fire is a tragedy that concerns everyone in Hong Kong. Many, regardless of their political loyalties, want the culprits to be held accountable,” says the 55-year-old, who is out on bail but has had his passport impounded.
“Not everything is about politics,” Cheung says.
Hong Kong authorities are dealing with this disaster using Beijing’s playbook, which focuses on social control and regime security, alleges Kenneth Chan, a politics professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University.
He notes how authorities have, over the weekend, displaced community-led relief initiatives with groups backed by the government.
“Officials will not embrace the spontaneity of these grassroots efforts because they want control,” he alleges.
On social media in HK, comments piled in responding to the arrest. Most of them are unhappy over the arrests and the government’s response.
“Demanding the truth is considered incitement?” one such comment said.
Asked at a news conference earlier this week why he deserves to keep his job following the fire, John Lee sidestepped the question and instead pledged to take to task “anybody who dares to sabotage” relief efforts.
No government official has yet resigned nor been arrested over the fire. The 15 people arrested on suspicion of manslaughter are bosses or staff of construction firms, while another six detained are fire equipment contractors.
Some residents have also criticised the decision to proceed with a Legislative Council election, at a time when the city is in mourning. Only pro-Beijing “patriots” are allowed to contest in the poll which will be held on Sunday.
The issue however, is continuing to dominate discussion at all levels.
Some Legislative Council members made a request for an emergency debate to discuss the fire and post disaster relief work.
This was refused as the government said it would keep its focus on the issue of the fire itself,
In a statement to reporters Lee said, “Yes, it is a tragedy; it is a big fire. Yes, we need a reform. Yes, we have identified failures in different stages. That is exactly why we must act seriously to ensure that all these loopholes are plugged… to ensure that such things will not happen again.
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