Hello, viewers! Welcome to “Century Truths”.
Since the enforcement of the “National Security Law” by the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong in 2020, the high degree of autonomy and freedom in Hong Kong has been severely eroded. Hong Kong has become more and more assimilated to mainland China, and the once “Pearl of the Orient” has dimmed, with significantly reduced exposure in the international mainstream media.
However, at the end of 2025, Hong Kong once again became the focus of the world’s major media outlets, but this time it was due to a once-in-a-century massive fire.
On November 26, 2025, a fierce fire broke out in the Hung Fuk Yuen in the New Territories of Hong Kong, engulfing 7 buildings. A photo taken by Reuters quickly caused a sensation worldwide. In the image, a 71-year-old man stood in front of the Hung Fuk Yuen, raising his arms in despair and shouting, “My wife is still inside!”
A writer, witnessing this scene, penned a poem in sorrow, “Waves crash mercilessly on the shore, leaving only Victoria’s fame. A pitiful mention on the silver screen, the floating city is burning today.”
So, how devastating was this century’s great fire? What was the fundamental cause of the fire? In this issue, we will trace back together based on reports from home and abroad.
Hung Fuk Yuen was completed in 1983 with 8 buildings, each 31 floors high, totaling 1,984 residential units. According to the 2021 Hong Kong census data, the population living there was 4,643, with approximately 40% being elderly aged 65 and above.
According to the Hong Kong government’s report, as of December 9, 2025, the fire had resulted in 160 deaths, ranging from a 1-year-old to a 97-year-old victim, including a 37-year-old firefighter who lost his life.
However, according to analysis by netizens and independent researchers, at the time, the fire spread rapidly with a vertical chimney effect, giving residents only about 5 minutes to escape. It was estimated that over 2,600 people were affected, and compared to the mortality rate of similar historical fires, experts calculated that the actual death toll was at least between 780 to 1,300.
This was the most devastating fire in Hong Kong from 1918 to 2025.
Before the fire, Hung Fuk Yuen was undergoing a large-scale exterior wall repair project in accordance with the Hong Kong government’s mandatory building inspection plan. And this major fire was directly related to that construction project.
In January 2024, the owners’ corporation of Hung Fuk Yuen proposed 3 repair plans, with costs ranging from 150 million to 330 million Hong Kong dollars. The corporation ultimately approved a repair budget of 330 million, with each unit bearing an average cost of 160,000 to 180,000 Hong Kong dollars, and the “Hung Yip Construction Engineering Limited” was responsible for the construction.
Some residents claimed that this budget more than doubled the bid price of 150 million from other competitors, and included some non-government mandated projects, such as laying paper stone on the exterior walls. This raised dissatisfaction among some owners who were concerned that “Hung Yip Construction” was inflating costs, cutting corners, and suspected the corporation of violating regulations, colluding with bid contractors. There were petitions and self-organized meetings by residents to try to overturn the repair plan, but it did not happen.
In September 2024, Hung Fuk Yuen finally successfully held a special owners’ meeting and changed the corporation. However, the repair work had already begun in July 2024.
During the maintenance period, there were continuous doubts raised by owners regarding “Hung Yip Construction”. Although “Hung Yip Construction” was rated as a “preferred consideration” by the Urban Renewal Authority, several media outlets found that the rating content did not match reality. “Ming Pao” reported discrepancies in 4 items.
The media also found that “Hung Yip Construction” was involved in multiple incidents of violating building safety regulations. For instance, between 2022 and 2025, “Hung Yip Construction” had been charged multiple times for violating the “Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance”; the company’s license for small-scale construction had been suspended at one point; and in 2023, “Hung Yip Construction” had been disciplined by the Buildings Department for projects at Bowei Court and Ning Yang Terrace in Mid-Levels and North Point, respectively.
An anonymous industry source told “Ta Kung Pao” that over the past decade, there have been significant issues with bid rigging among engineering companies in Hong Kong. He gave an example of a company’s principal who withdrew from bidding immediately after participating due to warnings, leading to fewer reputable companies in the industry. And Hung Yip Construction was known as a bidding “champion” in the industry, taking on many projects.
After the fire, on November 28, 2025, the Hong Kong government announced that the lower level protective nets caught fire first, the polycarbonate boards blocking the building windows caused the fire to spread quickly and extend to other buildings. Meanwhile, a bamboo scaffolding caught fire, and burning bamboo pieces fell, igniting other protective nets, leading to the fire getting out of control.
Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam told the media that the government would conduct a thorough inspection of all bamboo scaffolding in the city and consider switching to metal scaffolding.
However, was the bamboo scaffolding really the main culprit behind the fire getting out of control?
Former Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Lam Chiu-ying, posted on social media, saying that flammable nets and polystyrene boards were the “material culprits” of the fire, questioning why the relatively less flammable bamboo scaffolding was the focus of investigation.
Seasoned commentator Fang Wei posted photos of buildings ravaged by the fire on X platform, questioning: “1. How did the fire-resistant protective nets, all basically disappear after the fire? 2. How did the flammable bamboo remain intact after the fire? What is fireproof and what is flammable? 3. How could the bamboo pieces from one building ignite the canopy nets of another building dozens of meters away after falling? Was this lateral fall?”
In fact, as early as September 13, 2024, when the first batch of polystyrene boards arrived at the construction site, residents conducted fire resistance tests and posted the results online. The test results showed that these materials were easily flammable with extremely poor fire resistance.
On September 16, 2024, “Hung Yip Construction” used their own test video to prove the safety of the polystyrene boards while pointing out that replacing them would incur additional costs. Overburdened residents had no choice but to compromise temporarily, waiting for the first batch of polystyrene boards to be used up before taking action.
In addition to the polystyrene boards, the fire resistance of the nets was also questioned by residents. In 2024, when the repair work had just begun at Hung Fuk Yuen, an owner complained to the Hong Kong Labour Department that the nets used in the works were not fire retardant, posing safety risks. However, the Labor Department rejected the complaint citing reasons like “no welding work undertaken” and “relatively low fire risk”.
On February 20, 2024, a lengthy post titled “140 Violations by Hung Yip Construction + Using Thin Non-fireproof Nets, Strongly Demanding Termination of the 330 Million Repair Contract” appeared on the Facebook group “Hung Fuk Yuen Residents Exchange”. The poster attached screenshots of public records from the Buildings Department, fines and revocation documents against Hung Yip, real photos of the nets (thin to see-through, devoid of fire-resistant signage), and warned, “These nets melt as soon as they catch fire, enveloping 8 buildings, blowing up the entire village when the summer northeast wind blows!”
However, on February 22, 2024, then-Po District Councillor and member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, Wong Pik-kiu, publicly responded to the post saying, “Some residents are spreading rumors, constantly talking about nets catching fire and problems with Hung Yip, spreading fear. Do not believe these rumors! The project has been tendered, the contract is in effect, government departments are supervising, the materials are compliant, everyone can rest assured.”
While Wong Pik-kiu rejected the residents’ proposal, the related issues raised concerns among industry professionals. Pan Chok-hung, a construction engineering expert and chairperson of the Central Watch, said in an interview with “Zhen Talk” host Leung Chun after the fire, that in May 2024, he had written at least 80 letters to various departments including the Hong Kong Housing Department, Labor Department, Building Department, and the Independent Review team of the Housing Department, pointing out that contractors for several buildings including Hung Fuk Yuen were suspected of using flammable nets, but these emails went unanswered.
Typically, scaffolding used in maintenance projects stores materials such as banana water, polystyrene, discarded canvas, along with potential fire sources like welding sparks or workers smoking, which may ignite the protective nets or other flammable building materials. In addition, when the scaffolding is close to the building’s facade, a fire at a lower level can create strong convection currents, leading to the rapid spread of fire to the top floor. Therefore, “fire prevention” is of utmost importance in the entire maintenance project.
However, in the repair works at Hung Fuk Yuen, to facilitate worker access, the contractor replaced sealed windows in some floors’ fire escape staircases with wooden panel windows that were not smoke-proof.
The Hong Kong media “am730” quoted a former security supervisor at Hung Fuk Yuen, who discovered in May 2025 that, to facilitate the movement of materials through the fire escape route by workers, smoke-proof doors were left open for an extended period, and the fire alarm system appeared to be turned off, and the fire pump shut down as well. He had raised the issue to superiors multiple times but was ignored. He could only choose to resign and leave two weeks later. Furthermore, smoking was not prohibited by the contractor, and he often saw renovation workers smoking.
After the fire, many people placed their hopes on the Hong Kong government to find the culprits and calm public anxieties. Yet, the actions taken by the government left the people of Hong Kong extremely disappointed.
Less than 24 hours after the fire, before the cause had been thoroughly investigated, the government swiftly arrested 2 directors and 1 consultant of the construction company Hung Yip on charges of “manslaughter.”
On November 28, 2025, some Hong Kong residents launched a petition on the Change.org website demanding a “thorough investigation of the Hung Fuk Yuen fire.” However, on November 29, 24-year-old university student Miles Kwan, who initiated the petition, was arrested by the Hong Kong police on charges of sedition; he was released on bail pending further investigation two days later. Meanwhile, the petition website was deleted.
This incident sparked widespread controversy. Subsequently, the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong issued a statement, alleging that during the disaster, “anti-China troublemakers” incited hatred against the government, causing “chaos in the disaster.” In response to such actions, the government vowed to “take a tough stance and strike in accordance with the law.”
On November 30, former District Councilor Cheung Kam-hung and a volunteer responsible for a grassroots supplies station with the last name Li were taken away by national security officers, accused of “allegedly inciting hatred against the government through the fire incident.”
On December 2, a press conference on the “High-rise Repair Policy” originally scheduled by the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong was canceled, and the chairperson, Liu Shing-lei, was summoned by the police national security department.
Many expressed, “Under the control of the authoritarian Communist Party, Hong Kong is no longer the democratic and free Hong Kong it once was.
Since the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty in 1997, despite the vigorous resistance from Hong Kong people, the Communist Party of China continues its red colonization of Hong Kong.
In 2019, the Chinese Communist Party pushed for the “2019 Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill” in Hong Kong. Hong Kong citizens feared the bill would arbitrarily extradite “Hong Kong residents, visitors” to mainland China for trial, threatening the rule of law in Hong Kong and the “one country, two systems” principle, leading to the largest anti-Communist government protest in Hong Kong history – the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement. However, the movement was violently suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party.
In order to completely destroy Hong Kong’s democracy, in 2020, the Chinese Communist Party forcibly imposed the “National Security Law for Hong Kong,” amending the electoral system of the Hong Kong District Council and Legislative Council, suppressing the democratic forces in Hong Kong, and driving them out of the Hong Kong District Council and Legislative Council.
In 2025, under the Chinese Communist Party’s rule, Hong Kong has essentially achieved its goals: controlling the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong District Council and Legislative Council, and the judicial system of Hong Kong. The “one country, two systems” Hong Kong has become a “one-party dictatorship” Hong Kong. And the corrupt and derelict qualities of the Party have been brought to Hong Kong.
Behind this century’s great fire in Hong Kong, were there massive benefits exchanged between Hung Yip Construction and government officials? Will anyone in the government take on leadership responsibility?
Former Beijing lawyer Lai Jianping said, “I feel that this great fire in Hong Kong is three parts natural disaster and seven parts man-made calamity.” He believed that since Hong Kong was completely taken over by the Chinese Communist Party, not only has the legal system been assimilated into mainland China, but the insidious practices of deceit, fraud, cutting corners, backdoors, kickbacks, have also begun to breed and spread in Hong Kong society.
However, the Chinese Communist Party will not acknowledge this.
In dealing with this fire, anything that truly involves the Party’s misuse of “power” (including dereliction of duty) and illegal gains by Party officials (including bribery and various forms of benefit exchanges) will be concealed, downplayed, or minimized by the Party in every possible way.
Nonetheless, there may be a few “scapegoats” made to bear the blame for this century’s great fire.
Well, that’s all for today’s program. Thank you for watching. If you enjoyed our program, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share. See you next time.