Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades had barely been extinguished when the city’s authorities began working to contain something else: public anger at the government.

香港数十年来死伤最严重的火灾甫一扑灭，香港当局便开始着手应对另一件事：公众对政府的愤怒。

National security police have arrested at least two people for demanding more government accountability in the blaze at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate that engulfed seven apartment towers and killed at least 156 people. One of them was Kenneth Cheung, a former elected district official who posted criticism of the authorities’ response to the fire on Facebook and was accused of inciting hatred against the government online. The other was Miles Kwan, a 24-year-old university student who handed out fliers near the fire site calling for an independent probe into the disaster. The police declined to comment on their arrests.

至少两人因为要求政府在宏福苑大火中承担更多责任被香港警方国安处逮捕。这场火灾吞噬了七幢住宅楼，造成至少156人死亡。两人中一人是曾经当选区议员的张锦雄，他在Facebook上批评当局对火灾的应对，被指控在网上煽动对政府的仇恨。另一人是24岁的大学生关靖丰，他在火灾现场附近派发传单，呼吁对这场灾难进行独立调查。警方拒绝就他们的被捕置评。

Over the weekend, Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong issued a statement warning of consequences for “anti-China elements” who are looking to use the fire, which started last Wednesday and lasted more than 24 hours, “to cause trouble.”

上周末，北京驻港国安公署发表声明，警告那些“反中乱港分子”不要“以灾乱港”。这场大火始于上周三，持续了超过24小时。

“They have lost their humanity, disregarded facts, spread false information, maliciously attacked” the Hong Kong government’s efforts, the statement said.

“他们泯灭人性、罔顾事实，散播虚假信息，恶意攻击特区政府救援工作，”声明称。

救援人员在大埔宏福苑火灾现场寻找伤亡者。

The authorities’ swift crackdown on expression suggested that they were acutely aware of the risk that last week’s disaster could fuel a fresh political reckoning in a city that was engulfed with antigovernment protests in 2019. The scale of the disaster has already laid bare likely failures in oversight and preparedness that allowed substandard and flammable materials to be used in construction, and for alarm systems to fail.

当局对言论的迅速打压表明，他们敏锐地意识到上周的灾难可能会在这个城市引发新一轮的政治清算，2019年，香港曾经爆发大规模反政府抗议活动。这场灾难的规模已经暴露出监督和应急准备工作中可能存在的疏漏，使得劣质和易燃材料用于施工，以及警报系统失灵。

Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, did not deny reports of the arrests when asked about them by a journalist at a news briefing on Tuesday. “Criminals who commit offenses must be taken to justice,” he said. “I will not tolerate any crimes, particularly crimes that exploit the tragedy that we are facing now.”

香港特区行政长官李家超在周二的新闻发布会上被记者问及逮捕报道时，并未做出否认。他说：“我们必须将犯罪分子绳之以法。我绝不容忍任何犯罪行为，尤其是利用目前的悲剧进行的犯罪活动。”

He reiterated Beijing’s warning that the authorities would not tolerate any attempt to “sabotage” social unity.

他重申了北京的警告，称当局不会容忍任何“破坏”社会团结的企图。

The government’s strict response reflects fears of a resurgence of the social discontent that fueled the 2019 demonstrations, analysts say. That uprising was the biggest challenge to Beijing’s rule in decades.

分析人士表示，政府的强硬回应反映了其对重新燃起2019年示威浪潮背后社会不满的担忧。当年的反抗活动是数十年来对北京统治的最大挑战。

In the days after the fire, the area around the charred Wang Fuk Court complex in the northern suburb of Tai Po evoked echoes of those demonstrations: volunteers organizing themselves to distribute aid; mourners in black clothing; public walls covered in sticky notes expressing grief and offering words of support.

火灾发生后的几天里，位于香港北部郊区大埔已经烧焦的宏福苑周围，呈现出了让人想起那些示威活动的场景：自发组织起来的志愿者分发援助物资；哀悼者身着黑衣；公共区域的墙上贴满了表达悲痛和加油打气的便利贴。

志愿者在大埔宏福苑整理捐赠的衣物和食物。

Even Mr. Kwan, the university student who was arrested, presented his grievances toward the government as a list of “four demands” — echoing the “five demands, not one less” slogan that was a rallying cry for the 2019 protesters.

就连被捕的大学生关靖丰也将他对政府的不满列为“四大诉求”——呼应了2019年抗议者的口号“五大诉求，缺一不可”。

It was the kind of independent, community-driven mobilization that once defined Hong Kong’s civic life, before Beijing’s sweeping crackdown sharply narrowed the space for public expression and organization.

这是香港公民社会曾经的标志性特征——一种独立的、由社区驱动的动员方式，但在北京的全面打压之下，公共表达与组织的空间已大为缩小。

China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 to crush the protests and stamp out political dissent. Its invocation after the fire in Tai Po shows how elastic the law is, analysts say, shifting from a tool used by the authorities to target democracy activists to one that can now be wielded to mute calls by ordinary people for officials to be held accountable for public tragedies.

2020年，中国在香港实施国安法以平息抗议活动并压制政治异见。分析人士指出，大埔火灾后援引该法显示出这部法律的弹性之大——从当局针对民主活动人士的工具，转变为可用于压制普通民众要求官员对公共悲剧负责的呼声。

“This is the biggest political crisis that the government has faced since the 2019 protests and the 2020 national security law crackdown,” said Thomas E. Kellogg, the executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law. “There’s no doubt that the government will use the national security apparatus to maintain political control and to ensure that the crisis won’t be used as a platform for political and social mobilization to demand transparency and accountability.”

乔治城大学亚洲法律中心执行主任托马斯·E·凯洛格表示：“这是自2019年的抗议活动和2020年国安法镇压以来，政府面临的最大政治危机。毫无疑问，政府将动用国家安全机制来维持政治控制，并确保危机不会被用作要求透明和问责的政治和社会动员平台。"

So far, no government officials have been held responsible for the fire. All 15 of the people who have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter are from construction companies, the police said. Mr. Lee, the city’s leader, did not provide an answer when he was pressed by a reporter on Tuesday to justify why he should keep his job following the disaster.

迄今为止，还没有政府官员因这场大火被追责。警方表示，所有涉嫌误杀被逮捕的15人全部来自建筑公司。周二，当一名记者追问李家超，为何在灾难发生后他仍可以继续担任特首职务时，他未给出答案。

Mr. Lee said the government would establish an independent committee, chaired by a judge, to investigate the causes of the blaze. Experts welcomed the move, but said that key details — such as whether the committee would have statutory powers or if the judge would be appointed by the judiciary rather than the government — would determine whether the inquiry is seen as credible.

李家超说，政府将成立一个独立的调查委员会调查火灾的原因，并由一名法官担任主席。专家们对这项举措表示欢迎，但也指出，关键细节将决定调查是否具备公信力，比如该委员会是否拥有法定权力，以及法官是由司法机关任命还是由政府任命。

香港特首李家超在周二的新闻发布会上发言。

“If the committee is seen to not be independent, that will only further disillusion people who are currently dissatisfied,” said Stuart Hargreaves, an associate professor of law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“如果这个委员会被认为没有独立性，只会让那些对目前心存不满的人进一步感到失望，”香港中文大学法学副教授斯图尔特·哈格里夫斯说。

The national security law has already effectively muted many voices who would have otherwise pressed the government more forcefully to take responsibility for lapses that allowed the fire to happen. Opposition politicians had once been a vocal presence in the legislature, questioning government officials and holding protests to draw attention to issues. They quit en masse in 2020 in protest; later, many were either jailed or fled into exile.

要求政府为监管失职导致火灾发生而承担责任的声音，原本会更强烈，但受到国安法的有效压制。反对派政治人物曾在立法会中直言不讳地对政府官员提出质疑，并通过抗议来引起对议题的关注。但他们在2020年集体辞职以示抗议；后来，许多人要么入狱，要么流亡海外。

The law has also made it risky for local journalists to conduct investigative reporting, for lawyers to analyze the government’s legal liability, and for activists to organize street demonstrations demanding transparency.

国安法也导致本地记者进行调查报道、律师分析政府的法律责任，以及活动人士组织街头示威活动要求透明度的做法变得危险起来。

“Tragedies like these happen even in fully open and democratic societies,” Prof. Kellogg said. “But the core elements of an open society can help guard against tragedies like these, and can play a vital role in shaping the response so that needed reforms are made to guard against something like this happening again. That won’t happen in Hong Kong in the national security law era.”

“即便在完全开放和民主的社会中，这类悲剧也会发生，”凯洛格说。“但开放社会的核心要素有助于防范此类悲剧，并且可以在塑造应对方面发挥至关重要的作用，从而促成必要的改革，以避免类似事件再次发生。在国安法时代的香港，这些都不会发生。”

Despite the absence of public protests, the grief and anger over a tragedy that many believe could have been avoided with better oversight will threaten to undermine faith in the government, said Willy Lam, an analyst of Chinese politics at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington.

华盛顿詹姆斯敦基金会的中国政治分析师林和立表示，尽管没有公开抗议活动，但这场悲剧带来的悲痛和愤怒将会威胁到人们对政府的信任，许多人认为，如果监管得当，这场悲剧本可以避免。

“A deep scar will be etched onto the collective memory of everybody because the fire started not as a political event, unlike the 2019 protests, and almost all mourners are not politically motivated,” Mr. Lam said. “Most mourners just want the government to do the right thing.”

“这场火灾不像2019年的抗议那样始于政治事件，而几乎所有前来悼念的人都非出于政治动机，因此，它将在每个人的集体记忆中留下深深的伤痕，”林和立说。“大多数悼念者只是希望政府做正确的事。”