An arm of the Chinese government warned foreign media outlets Saturday against covering a Nov. 26 Hong Kong high-rise fire which left at least 159 dead in a manner painting Beijing in a negative light.
The Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong (OSNS), the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) national security presence in the region, gathered journalists from foreign media outlets, including The New York Times, to issue a formal warning against reporting what it called “distorted facts” about the deadly blaze in ways critical of the government’s response, The New York Times reported. The fire burned through the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex, after which three individuals were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
“Some foreign media have recently reported on Hong Kong ignoring the facts, spreading false information, distorting and smearing the government’s disaster relief and aftermath work, attacking and interfering with the Legislative Council election, provoking social division and opposition,” OSNS said in a statement reported by Reuters.
“Do not say you have not been warned,” OSNS continued, before emphasizing journalists would face repercussions if the government found them in violation of the Chinese government’s 2020 Hong Kong national security law, The New York Times reported.
Days before the Beijing-controlled office summoned foreign media outlets, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) — widely considered to be allied with the CCP — issued a similar message about what it dubbed anti-China “malicious attacks” in the wake of the fire.
“Regrettably, foreign forces and anti-China and destabilising forces with ulterior motives, through disseminating fake news and false messages on the Internet, and even distributing seditious pamphlets … instigate social division and conflict to undermine the society’s unity in taking forward the support and relief work,” a government spokesman said in a Wednesday press release.
The spokesman claimed the so-called “fake news” was “intended to maliciously smear the rescue work,” according to the release.
“The HKSAR Government will not tolerate any malicious smearing targeting the HKSAR Government and rescue personnel without regard to the ordeal the society is facing, in particular criminal acts that are intended to incite hatred against the government, confounding right and wrong,” the spokesman added in the release.
On Tuesday, the HKSAR government prohibited the operations of the Hong Kong Parliament and the Hong Kong Democratic Independence Union, a pair of organizations allied with the region’s pro-democracy camp.
The Hong Kong government arrested Kenneth Cheung, a former district councilor, Nov. 1 after he posted news reports on Facebook seen as critical of the Chinese government. The day before, Hong Kong police arrested a student who started a petition in part calling on the HKSAR government to begin an independent investigation into the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire, The Washington Post reported.
“I shared articles that moved me and had no intention to test national security’s limits. I really have no idea where their red line lies,” Cheung told the Washington Post. “Previously only public figures or people active in politics were targeted, but in the last couple of weeks, even a volunteer delivering relief supplies was detained.”
The government of the People’s Republic of China passed the 2020 Hong Kong national security law shortly following pro-democracy and pro-U.S. protests that swept the region in 2019 and 2020.
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