Hong Kong authorities have issued a warning regarding mobile games created in Taiwan, labeling them as “separatist” and potentially leading to legal repercussions.
The game, Inverted Front: Bon Fire, allows players to “swear allegiance” to various groups associated with significant issues or targets in China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghur, Kazakhs, and Manchuria, with aims to “overthrow the communist regime,” referred to as the “People’s Republic.”
While some elements of the game’s narrative and place names are fictional, the website claims that it is a “non-fiction work” and that any resemblance to the PRC’s actual institutions, policies, or ethnic groups is “intentional.”
Players can also opt to “leave the Communists and defeat all enemies,” which has elicited strong reactions from authorities, including the Communist Party of China (CCP).
On Tuesday, Hong Kong police remarked that the inverted front “defines an armed revolution and promotes independence between Taiwan and Hong Kong,” criticizing the game.
Downloading the game may lead to accusations of possessing inflammatory materials, and in-app purchases could be construed as financially supporting a developer “for activities of secession or subversion,” the police noted.
Recommendations for the game could be seen as an “incitement to abdication.”
In this inverted worldview, the communists are portrayed as conquerors of surrounding regions, ruling with unprecedented cruelty as a colonial force, causing many to flee. Decades later, only Taiwan is depicted as “dodging lasting deterioration.”
The game prompts players to consider whether Taiwan can remain safe by avoiding provocations or whether “we should learn from the mistakes of the past 30 years that allowed today’s communists to grow into giants.”
In player descriptions, the game characterizes the communists as “heavy, reckless, and incompetent,” accusing them of “corruption, embezzlement, exploitation, genocide, and pollution.”
On its Facebook page, the developer, known as ESC Taiwan or Taiwan’s Overseas Strategic Communication Working Group (ESC), stated that it gained attention. On Wednesday, the game claimed it topped download charts in Hong Kong’s app store after a surge on Tuesday night.
“We recommend that users change the country or region of their Apple ID to successfully download the game.”
The developers have committed to not actively filtering or reviewing words or phrases in the game, addressing recent concerns about censorship in Chinese-created or related games. The location of ESC Taiwan remains undisclosed.
Police warnings regarding this game are part of a broader crackdown on democratic dissent in Hong Kong, where the CCP has tightened its grip on the city. In 2020, Beijing implemented national security laws in Hong Kong, with the city government’s approval, criminalizing widespread dissent.
Critics accuse the authorities of weaponizing these laws to target opposition voices, including activists, politicians, labor unions, journalists, media, and children’s literature.
Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu
Source: www.theguardian.com
