As I see it | Politicisation of Hong Kong’s fire tragedy in Western media a new low
There has been an unhelpful propensity to view the fire and its aftermath through the lens of a Western version of democracy
As sure as night follows day, you can always count on the big Western media outlets to politicise anything bad that happens in Hong Kong or on the mainland. So with the horrific Tai Po fire, you can be sure those platforms will go to town with that approach.
The real cause of the fatal fire? Well, of course, it’s all about democracy and freedom, or rather the lack of their Western versions in China.
The same old “democracy” explains everything, which turns every ignorant foreign commentator into an expert. If you are disgusted by their sheer moral indecency, you are probably not alone.
Even as the bodies were still being recovered and identified, these Western “experts” already seemed to know what had happened. Are they so all-knowing or just reprehensibly presumptuous?
Here are some headlines: “Deadly Fire Highlights Hong Kong’s Predicament” (with the standfirst, “The tragedy confirmed to many locals that the city’s freedoms have vanished”), “The killer Hong Kong fire shows how freedom is an even greater loss than you’d think”, “Deadly Hong Kong fire is a test of Beijing’s rule in the city”.
In handling the aftermath of such a deadly fire, there is always room for improvement, and not every demand can be met immediately.