The catastrophic fireplace at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court docket housing advanced final week has been broadly mentioned on mainland social media. Many commenters mourned the useless as their quantity climbed previous 100, then 150. A few of these messages appeared on the “Wailing Wall” that also survives within the replies to COVID whistleblower Li Wenliang’s ultimate Weibo publish. Others praised the relative openness they perceived in Hong Kong’s response to the catastrophe, as compared with the sometimes heavy-handed administration of such “sudden incidents” elsewhere in China. Others but lamented that this openness is essentially now a factor of the previous. From commentary by CDT Chinese language editors of their weekly recap:
One Weibo consumer lamented, “After the Hong Kong fireplace, everybody from specialists, committee members, and journalists to essentially the most extraordinary members of the general public might publicly and candidly voice their anger, grief, criticism, and calls for for accountability. That is what a standard public sphere that allows expression and investigation seems like. By comparability, with the Kunming prepare accident that killed 11 railway employees, the general public assertion ended with ‘safeguard the protection and stability of railway transportation,’ and there was no mourning to be seen on social media.”
After all, this comparability could also be largely wishful pondering. In response to information experiences, Wang Fuk Court docket residents had notified the authorities of building supplies falling in need of fireplace security requirements way back to September final 12 months, however their complaints and solutions weren’t taken severely. Public paperwork present that [in 2007], Cao Deguang, a former shareholder of Hong Yip Development Ltd., the corporate accountable for the work, was sentenced to 18 months in jail for bribing a public housing official. Investigations into procurement corruption and points with constructing supplies are nonetheless underway, and we’ve got but to see their conclusions. However what proof we do have clearly exhibits that removed from being a single accident, the hearth was a man-made catastrophe fueled by a mix of things akin to flawed decision-making, lack of supervision, and insufficient fireplace prevention programs. What’s extra ironic is the arrest of a younger Hong Konger for issuing “4 Calls for”—sponsored lodging for survivors, an impartial investigation, a evaluate of supervisory mechanisms, and punishment of officers discovered accountable. On the very day of his arrest, the Workplace for Safeguarding Nationwide Safety [the Chinese central government’s national security office in Hong Kong] issued an announcement saying it “firmly supported the Hong Kong SAR in punishing destabilizing and anti-China components for exploiting the hearth to disrupt the town.” How is that this any lower than the overall “mainlandization” of Hong Kong? [Chinese]
The Wall Avenue Journal’s Jason Chau equally described the official response as “a show of how the once-freewheeling metropolis of Hong Kong has been dropped at heel by strict national-security legal guidelines and Beijing’s rising management.” A press release from Amnesty Worldwide on Monday urged, “Now’s the time for the Hong Kong authorities to transparently examine the causes of the devastating fireplace in Tai Po, somewhat than silencing those that ask professional questions. Whilst we mourn, we can’t ignore the necessity to deliver justice to the affected households in addition to to stop as a lot as doable the reoccurrence of comparable tragedies.”
The arrests in Hong Kong proper now are déjà vu for mainlanders like me who have been energetic in civil society within the 2000s: residents demanding investigations and accountability after public disasters are met not with solutions, however arrests and intimidation. #mainlandization #香港加速内地化
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— Yaqiu Wang 王亚秋 (@yaqiu.bsky.social) November 29, 2025 at 8:44 PM
A WeChat publish by writer Gu Yi emphasised the necessity for reflection within the wake of disasters just like the Wang Fuk Court docket fireplace, and praised Hong Kong authorities for his or her transparency and apparently proactive response. (The variety of arrests has now elevated to 13 over the hearth itself, and three extra over requires accountability.)
From the beginning, the hearth dominated social media. The primary I noticed of it was Phoenix’s report, then many different media shops and customers added their very own protection. Even from afar, individuals have been watching, scrutinizing, and mourning the catastrophe, and naturally reflecting on what went flawed. All of those, after all, are simply regular human reactions.
We noticed photos of these residence towers engulfed in flames, we noticed the billowing smoke and the endlessly tumbling flames; the tearful interviews with those that had escaped, the residents anxiously ready for information of their family members, and the opposite residents stopping, watching, and praying.
It was virtually like a reside broadcast taking part in out in entrance of us all.
When main accidents like this have occurred prior to now, we’ve at all times heard this type of sentiment: “Now’s the time for all-out rescue efforts. Please don’t analyze causes, assign blame, or speculate concerning the catastrophe.” Those that did this stuff have been accused of hindering the response, or harboring ulterior motives. Afterwards, with the rescue full and every little thing over and carried out with, it’s typically very simple for us to overlook.
This time, we noticed all of this unfolding naturally and in actual time.
The continuing rescue operation didn’t impede the arrests of three individuals for manslaughter, or the native authorities’s fixed disclosure of doable causes. For instance, it was found that security nets, waterproof tarps, and plastic sheeting on the buildings’ exterior partitions could not have met fireplace security requirements; that expanded polystyrene could have accelerated the hearth’s unfold; that residents had seen building employees smoking; and so forth.
[…] When individuals have seen what occurred, it’s pure for them to ask why, then pull collectively insights from numerous specialists and pool their knowledge and efforts till they attain a sensible answer for altering or bettering the established order. That is how we progress.
Any giant and deadly fireplace requires severe reflection. The more severe the catastrophe, the deeper the teachings, and the extra complete and penetrating our thought course of should be. [Chinese]
Comparatively favorable views from mainlanders of Hong Kong authorities’ response could partly be a product of timing, coming comparatively quickly after the hearth, and of restricted entry to information of subsequent developments. However in addition they recall a current remark from the WeChat account Huanhuaxi Du Fu (an account that has since been banned), on the controversy over Taiwanese singer Zheng Zhihua’s therapy by workers at Shenzhen Airport: “As somebody accustomed to consuming high quality grain, he naturally discovered our coarser bran arduous to swallow. Whereas Chinese language netizens, accustomed to even much less edible fare, assume they’ve bought it fairly good once they get a chunk or two of coarse bran. That is the hole in understanding brought on by two totally different teams of individuals working below two very totally different frames of reference.”
Prolific commentator Xiang Dongliang, nonetheless, framing Hong Kong as a metropolis whose buildings and folks alike are quickly ageing, argued that if Hong Kong had retained its conventional institutional vitality, the catastrophe may by no means have occurred:
Extremely developed social organizations like Hong Kong’s world-leading volunteer groups have been as soon as on the core of the town’s competitiveness and cultural appeal, making it resilient in occasions of adversity.
Beforehand, its clear and environment friendly system of governance, exemplified by the Unbiased Fee In opposition to Corruption (ICAC), along with what was then an impartial judiciary, not solely created Hong Kong’s wonderful enterprise surroundings however was additionally capable of assist the town overcome an amazing many difficulties in the midst of the ageing course of.
The place was the ICAC in the course of the 12 months of building work that preceded the hearth?
Prior to now, Hong Kong’s extremely developed and fiercely aggressive information media would continuously dig up and expose societal issues, supervising the actions of the SAR authorities. Operations in clear violation of rules, such because the Wang Fuk Court docket renovation undertaking, would have been unlikely to flee media scrutiny, and the disaster might need been averted.
Sadly, there aren’t so many “what ifs” on this world, nor can we treatment present issues with phrases like “as soon as,” “beforehand,” or “prior to now.” The previous is previous, and what’s misplaced is difficult to get well. [Chinese]
Additionally on WeChat, blogger Mu Bai highlighted how some nationalist commenters had drawn false connections between the Hong Kong fireplace and the at the moment heightened tensions with Japan over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s current feedback about defending Taiwan:
[…] Past grief, the one worth in any catastrophe is in uncovering the causes of that catastrophe.
As a result of a catastrophe can occur in the present day in Hong Kong, and elsewhere tomorrow. Maybe the issue is scaffolding; maybe it’s inattention to element throughout testing of a high-speed rail line that led to the split-second lack of 11 lives, as additionally occurred in the present day. [The incident near Kunming was a reference point for other commentary as well.]
However have a look on-line within the wake of those calamities, and what are some individuals speaking about?
Underneath posts on the Hong Kong fireplace, there are numerous feedback claiming, “the Japanese did it,” “this was Japanese handiwork,” “Japanese spies have been behind it,” and so forth.
I’m not talking for the Japanese right here. All I wish to say is that these sorts of feedback and viewpoints, thoughtlessly spewed on-line, are one more type of harm to the useless, muddying the waters and distracting from the foundation causes of the catastrophe.
[…] I noticed a bit on-line saying that the brainless don’t need to name themselves “patriots.” In gentle of the feedback above, I wholeheartedly concur. [Chinese]
Many posts refer closely to the usage of bamboo scaffolding, largely accepting the framing that it bears a part of the blame for the hearth, and portraying its continued use in Hong Kong—generally disparagingly known as a “fishing village”—as emblematic of how the mainland has “overtaken” its as soon as extra superior sibling. A deleted publish by “Uncle Da,” for instance, blames bamboo’s persistence on complacency and vested pursuits, whereas additionally arguing that the mainland’s transition to metal scaffolding was pushed by revenue somewhat than any extra high-minded rules. The function of bamboo has been fiercely disputed by many Hong Kongers, and official statements now counsel that plastic netting and foam boards over home windows have been what really accelerated the blaze. On Bluesky, journalist Wing Kuang argued that bamboo scaffolding is just not being defended purely as a cultural image distinguishing Hong Kong from the mainland, however due to concern that it was being scapegoated by authorities to distract from deeper causes. Bloomberg and the Monetary Instances each cited native architects defending the fabric’s continued use.
In the meantime, a WeChat publish by “Writes Onerous on Thursdays” warned that mainlanders can unwell afford complacency, noting that Hong Kong constructing requirements are significantly increased in different respects, such because the minimal density of metal rebar in bolstered concrete. The truth that a big 42-year-old housing advanced nonetheless wanted such intensive and costly upkeep work is an alarming prospect for these shopping for into mainland developments. The piece concludes with a warning that, most often, mainland Chinese language ought to keep away from shopping for high-rise flats—particularly ones above the 15-floor attain of most fireplace vans.
That publish stays on-line, however one other inspecting the causes of the hearth and warning of the hidden risks of ageing high-rises was deleted. One other deleted publish in contrast the Hong Kong catastrophe with one other high-rise fireplace in Shanghai in 2010. Highlighting such precedents can indicate broader patterns, systemic failures, and classes unlearned, and orders in opposition to “sensationalist connections with previous occasions” are sometimes seen in leaked media directives. One other deleted publish targeted on the financial struggles of most of the buildings’ residents, compounded by the renovation work itself, which had left them spending months in cramped, darkened, stuffy houses.
Hong Kong Free Press has revealed a information for these wishing to assist these affected by the hearth, and can be in search of assist for its personal work.
