More than one month after the horrific fire in Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court rocked and shocked the city and the world, how it started remains a question yet to be answered. This is despite the swift arrest of dozens of people involved with the renovation project of the residential towers. What is certain is that the devastating blaze that left at least 161 people dead and about 1,900 families homeless has laid bare a host of longstanding problems in the city’s construction industry and regulatory and supervisory failures.

Angered by another piece of news about forged documentation of the supply of medical equipment at the Princess Margaret Hospital, medical constituency legislator David Lam blasted the construction sector as “cannot be more rotten.” Development minister Bernadette Linn was quick to rebuke, saying the industry should not be blamed for the behaviour of “black sheeps”.

Lam’s “rotten” outburst has struck a chord in the heart of the populace, of whom many felt a sense of loss and bewilderment, sadness and futility with not just the fire but the events unfolded in 2025.

Accountability of government

One month after the tragic fire, a 67-year-old resident at the ill-fated Wang Fuk Court, whose surname is Yip, said in an interview with Ming Pao, “They could not die with questions unanswered. (We) must seek justice.” Yip’s wife, 66, was of the 161 dead.

He claimed that many residents had sought assistance from government departments after they found something went with the renovation project but to no avail. He criticised the government for its failure to shoulder its responsibility and make an apology.

The alleged lack of accountability, or the show of it, to say the least, is at the heart of growing concern among some quarters of the society about what could be dubbed as the “new normal” in the city’s political scene.

The past 12 months saw more signs of the silencing of political dissent, the weakening of checks and balances and the proliferation of the culture of self-censorship (both deeds and words) in different aspects of life.

Democracy and freedom

Following the passage of a decision to undergo its dissolution procedure in February 2025, the Democratic Party formally became history on December 14 after members passed a resolution of its disbandment at a meeting.

The demise of the pro-democracy flagship marks the end of its fight for democracy and freedoms that could be dated back to the 1980s and, more importantly, a major turn of the policy of “Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong” as promised by Beijing for the post-1997 city.

As Beijing moved to fully implement the principle of “patriots running Hong Kong” in the aftermath of the 2019 political unrest, the “Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong” policy is substantially different from what it was before then. Just compare the political spectrum of the Legislative Council both before and after 1997.

Seen as another symbol of democracy and freedom, the Apple Daily lost its survival battle at a much earlier time, or June 2021. Even before the verdict of his national security trial was handed down on December 15, its founder Jimmy Lai may have already known his fate. He faces life imprisonment after being found guilty of colluding with foreign forces and seditious publications crimes.

That both the slow-death of the Democrats and the long-awaited verdict of Jimmy Lai hit headlines almost at the same time came as no surprise as the drastic legal and political changes engineered by the central authorities continued to make changes in the city’s political and social landscape.

2025 Legco election

Of the 161 candidates who contested the 2025 Legco election, none of them have any affiliations whatsoever with the small “d” pro-democracy camp. In a not-so-subtle development, several outspoken legislators known for their mildly-critical viewpoints, albeit occasionally, had decided not to seek re-election.

The December 7 election saw a slight increase of voter turnout from 30.2 % to 31.9 % attributable to a significant drop of the total number of registered voters, a drop of 40,000 of the number of people who cast their votes and a record high number of invalid votes, or 41,000.

The people have spoken up. A big chunk of the voters who had normally backed candidates who dare to bite and bark at the authorities in the legislature remains defiant by not casting their votes. This is despite the all-out effort by Chief Executive John Lee and his team to urge people to do so.

Cross-border integration and soft resistance

Whether it is yet another form of “soft resistance” is in the eyes of beholders. But the notion of “soft resistance” first identified by former Liaison Office director Luo Huining in 2021 as a potential threat to national security has continued to be seen as a major threat although officials said the city has now entered a stage of “moving from stability to prosperity.”

Against the backdrop of warnings against “soft resistance”, a film about student suicide was banned for showing in local cinemas, talks at universities cancelled and a drama written by an outspokesman playwright found nowhere to be staged. The list of shows and events planned but had never happened is long, but many of them are short in their details of why that happened.

At a meeting with John Lee during his annual duty visit in December, President Xi Jinping has urged the Hong Kong SAR to actively align with the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan and better integrate into, and serve, the country’s overall development.

There are plenty of cases that spoke volume of the profound changes in the process of closer and deeper cross-border integration, including unwelcome ones such as alleged scaffold net, problematic bottled water and mainlander drivers under the southbound travel vehicle scheme.

At the stroke of midnight December 31, Hongkongers will say goodbye to 2025 with a heavy heart – and a feeling mixed with lingering anxieties and uncertainties, doom and gloom.

The emergence of positive feelings imbued with togetherness and community spirit after citizens took initiatives to come to the aid of the victims of the Tai Po fire did not last long. This is an opportunity lost in easing the negative sentiments of the populace at the end of a year fraught with sadness and futility.

Wishing you and your family happiness, good health and achievements in 2026 !

▌ [At Large] About the Author

Chris Yeung is a veteran journalist, a founder and chief writer of the now-disbanded CitizenNews; he now runs a daily news commentary channel on Youtube. He had formerly worked with the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Economic Journal.