Tag: fire

Two Fires, One Extinguisher

On November 26, 2025, a five-alarm fire tore through Hong Kong’s Tai Po estate, MacPherson Court (Hung Fuk Estate), engulfing seven residential blocks. At least 160 people died, dozens were injured, and the city was left in shock. The physical fire burned for more than 43 hours. Another fire — political and institutional — was extinguished far more quickly.

As residents mourned and volunteers mobilized aid, some asked uncomfortable but reasonable questions: Why were flammable materials used? Why did the fire spread so fast? Could this tragedy have been prevented? The official response focused less on answers than on control. Calls for independent investigation, leaflets, and online criticism were treated as security risks.

This is where the second fire appeared. Shared grief, if allowed to gather, can become shared accountability. For the authorities, that possibility was more dangerous than the blaze itself. One extinguisher was deployed for both fires: a national security mindset designed to smother not only unrest, but also collective mourning.

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Blank paper speaks louder than a thousand words

Blank-paper Protest

On November 24th, at least 10 people died in a high-rise fire in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang. It was widely believed that Covid restrictions prevented the victims from escaping.

As China’s harsh Covid rules extend into the third year, frustration and desperation with lockdowns, quarantines and mass testings that have upended everyday life, have caused anger and defiance across china. This fire in Urumqi has pushed people’s anger even deeper. For the past a few days, demonstrators appeared in cities and on college campuses, most of them holding a blank sheet of A4 paper, a symbol of protest against Covid policies or even denouncing the Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping.

There is definitely nothing on the paper, but we know what’s on there. Leaving things unsaid, a sheet of blank paper expresses even more than words can do. It represents everything we want to say but cannot say.