Christine

Stand with Hong Kong!#HongKonger

[Christine @ChrisTin7215]

倪匡金句

[🇺🇦🇹🇼討厭紅色的我🇭🇰 #followbackHongKong @t3n0TYnpIQ0eF0D]

#港聞
【著名作家倪匡名言】

老外說，要做中國人，就不談要自由，要談自由就不要做中國人

我從來不與人爭拗
我覺得各持己見才是最好
這世界才多采多姿
我們反共，因為共產黨不容許別人持不同意見
如果我對不同意見反感
我便變成共產黨

Source:
倪匡金句

[Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 @benedictrogers]

An important article by @marklclifford

#FreeJimmyLai

My friend Jimmy Lai is ready to die in prison – that would be a disaster for democracy | The Independent https://t.co/iaj3lecMxD

[Carmen Lau 劉珈汶 @carmenkamanlau]

People are often moved by our stories, but sympathy isn’t enough—there is so much more we can do beyond pity.

Hear me out at @osloff, link in bio.

[Luke de Pulford @lukedepulford]

🇨🇳 mega-embassy latest:

Beijing refuses to participate in judicial review, showing “contempt” for the UK’s legal processes.

[Hong Kong Free Press HKFP @hkfp]

Student who launched petition urging probe into deadly Tai Po fire says CUHK expelled him weeks before graduation. In full: https://t.co/po24TtgyJn

[Hong Kong Watch @hk_watch]

🚨 LIVE in London: Today, people from #HongKong and other communities gathered outside Royal Mint Court in 🇬🇧 for the ninth protest against the proposed 🇨🇳 super embassy.
#StopSuperSurveillance #DefendDiasporas

[The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation @thecfhk]

PROTEST HAPPENING NOW: @danny__kruger tells Xi Jinping: “We see through your lies”.

#NoMegaEmbassy

[Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 @benedictrogers]

'Don't bow to China': Protesters march against Chinese 'mega embassy' in London https://t.co/NyozrtRqCy

[Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 @benedictrogers]

Kemi Badenoch joins protesters calling for government to stop China mega-embassy

https://t.co/T7RRuQ0rXp

[Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 @benedictrogers]

MASSIVE PROTEST: Starmer Slammed As Kemi Badenoch Heads Anti-China Security Rally https://t.co/WbPb1mirZe via @YouTube

[Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 @benedictrogers]

I was interviewed on @GBNEWS at today's protest against #China's proposed mega embassy.

You can watch from about 1:29 in if you scroll through this video:

https://t.co/esi2IhChaj

[Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 @benedictrogers]

It was a privilege to speak at today's mega protest against #China's proposed mega embassy, super spy base and hub for transnational repression, and to give at least six media interviews as well.

[Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 @benedictrogers]

In my speech at the protest against #China's proposed new mega embassy, I said it should not be approved while Jimmy Lai remains in jail, and I called on @Keir_Starmer to make his visit to China conditional on #FreeJimmyLai

I also called on @TowerHamletsNow to come good on its motion to rename the streets around the site as #HongKong Road, #Uyghur Avenue, #Tibet Street, #Taiwan Square - and to name the major intersection around the @TowerOfLondon as #JimmyLai Junction.

You can listen in full here 👇

[Hong Kong Watch @hk_watch]

Our co-founder and Chair of Trustees @benedictrogers spoke to @GBNEWS about why the proposed Chinese super embassy should be opposed at today’s protest 👇

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

🔴 Watch: Badenoch excoriates Labour over Chinese super-embassy

https://t.co/Xf1Cfurq2a

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

I believe in freedom.

I believe in putting our national interest first.

We cannot allow the Chinese to build this spy embassy in an area so crucial to our national security.

Keir Starmer must act now to stop this happening.

This is what I told protestors today👇

[Sky News @SkyNews]

Volunteers had gathered with donations and supplies for those affected by the fatal block fire in Hong Kong, but in less than 24 hours, authorities had almost completely cleared the square.

Sky's @HelenAnnSmith0 reports.

🔗 https://t.co/p5CvslQmwM

[Christine @ChrisTin7215]

This is a petition for demanding a independent investigation of Tai Po Wang Fuk Court Fire in Hong Kong, which led to 146 deaths, 79 injured and at least 100s are still missing. I sincerely hope that everyone can join this petition 🙏🏻

https://t.co/Ha8eHDRNtR

[Chung Ching Kwong 鄺頌晴 @chungchingkwong]

【Tai Po Fire, Bid-Rigging, and Bamboo Scaffolding in NSL-Era Hong Kong】

The Tai Po fire was not just a tragic accident; it was the predictable outcome of a broken system. A system where estate management, renovation contracts, and public safety have long been undermined by collusion, bid-rigging, and zero accountability. And since the NSL, Hong Kong has no civil society or independent media strong enough to hold these networks to account. Even when residents and expert and activists like Jason Poon, took their own samples of the netting and tried to expose the risks, they were ignored.

Wang Fuk Court was in the middle of a HK$330M “mega-repair.” Residents had protested the sky-high cost, accusing the owners’ corporation of force-pushing the plan through despite objections. Transparency was minimal. Oversight was weak. This is exactly how bid-rigging works in HK housing estates: pre-selected contractors, inflated prices, limited competition, opaque decisions, and incentives to cut corners on materials and safety, because no one is genuinely checking, nor can the civil society did what it used to do-- to hold different people to account and raise awareness of these issues.

During the renovation, the contractor wrapped the buildings with mesh, and foam boards that allegedly failed to meet fire-resistant standards. Some residents took a sample of the netting material to test on their own; videos showed it burned and dripped-- hardly in compliance with the regulations [1]. Here, cheaper, flammable materials meant higher profit margins and higher risk. The Wang Fuk Court contractor ignored safety again and again, with a long trail of corruption and violations. In 9 years, they racked up at least 17 regulatory breaches and fines.

When the fire started, the netting as shown in many videos, burned quickly. A slow fire became an inferno in minutes.

Police arrested multiple directors and engineers from the construction company. ICAC launched an investigation into the renovation contract itself — including how a controversial HK$330M plan was approved and whether corruption was involved.

This is the cost of collusion: Bid-rigging doesn’t just overcharge residents. It kills oversight, kills competition, and, in this case, helped create conditions that killed people. Hong Kong’s building maintenance system has tolerated collusion and corruption for years. The Tai Po fire is the clearest possible warning: corruption in estate management is not just a financial issue. It tells us a lot about HK-China relationship.

Beijing could and had rewritten Hong Kong’s political system overnight and crushed organised dissent, but it has never been able to cleanly uproot the entrenched construction and maintenance networks that profit from this model of “business as usual.” And this is where the politics of bamboo scaffolding enters the picture.

There is a long-understood agenda from Beijing to undermine Hong Kong’s bamboo scaffolding industry, not because it is unsafe, but precisely because it is a local craft, part of the Hong Kong identity, practised safely for decades, and one of the last corners of construction work where Chinese state-owned developers and their preferred contractors have never managed to gain a foothold. Bamboo scaffolding is not standard in the PRC; metal scaffolding is. And right now, mainland China faces a record glut of metal scaffolding materials, made worse by recent scandals over fake steel being used in their production , scandals that have no counterpart in Hong Kong’s bamboo trade.

So when the Hong Kong Government suddenly pushes a mandatory shift to metal scaffolding “for safety,” it is hard to ignore the timing. Yahoo Finance reports that Hong Kong experts defending the safety of bamboo scaffolding are being aggressively dismissed by PRC netizens, while the Government doubles down on the same narrative. In other words, this is not really about fire safety. It is a political and economic project to replace a resilient local craft with PRC-standard practices, conveniently absorbing a mainland oversupply while sidelining an industry Beijing has never been able to capture.

Thus, the tragedy is being used to accelerate “integration,” dressed up as technical modernisation. On paper, it’s about protecting the public; in practice, it sidesteps politically connected local players without ever reckoning with the actual causes of the fire: opaque estate governance, weak enforcement, collusion, and the hollowing out of watchdogs under the NSL.

We, Hongkongers, outside or inside the city do not trust the government or any of its proxies. Five years of national security crackdowns, media censorship, and relentless state messaging have not repaired the rupture exposed in 2019. That distrust is alive, deep, and justified.

HKSAR Gov and co are clearly not acting in good faith. Now, as you are reading, volunteers who organised themselves to help were reported to the police for unlawful assembly, a move that looks less like public order and more like spite. It is yet another sign that the Government now treats ordinary civic-minded Hongkongers as adversaries. And I fear reporting them is not the end of it, as Hongkongers came up with 4 very reasonable demands asking for investigation and accountability.

For us, the fact that John Lee decided to thank Xi Jinping first, rather than giving the credit to the brave firefighters, showed us that they are replicating the Mainland disaster-stagecraft: PR-first, people-last; party-state-first, people-last.

Taken together, the political economy of scaffolding, the erasure of civil oversight, and the Government’s behaviour during the crisis reinforce the same truth: the problem is not bamboo. The problem is a system where power, profit, and propaganda take precedence over safety, accountability, and the lives of Hong Kong people.

[1] https://t.co/1kEPkMcyEj

[Frances Hui 許穎婷 @frances_hui]

The arrest of the student who launched a petition over the deadly Tai Po fire shows how little free speech #HongKong really has. The CCP tolerates mourning, but anyone who dares to seek accountability or hold criticism is treated as a "national security" threat and crushed.