Hongfu Garden Hearing | Zhibang Property Management Manager Refuses to Attend Director: Difficult to Manage Workers Smoking

Hong Fuk Yuen Fire Incident Independent Committee holds its eighth hearing. The property management company, Zhibao Property, chief of property management Zheng Zhiying and engineering manager Lin Wenxin testify respectively.

Zheng Zhiying is the supervisor of Lu Qianying, a clerk who testified earlier. She was assigned to Hong Fuk Yuen as the property manager. Her duties include handling the day-to-day operations of the residential estate, issuing announcements, handling the management body’s work, and dealing with complaints. Her supervisor, Li Yongli, is the resident manager stationed at Hong Fuk Yuen.

When senior barrister Du Gan-kun, representing the committee, asks questions, he says he knows that Li Yongli will not attend the hearing, and Zheng Zhiying confirms it. When asked for the reason, she says, “I don’t know.”

Denies multiple items of testimony by Hongtai Fire Services personnel

Regarding multiple pieces of testimony given earlier by Hongtai Fire Services personnel, Zheng Zhiying denies them, including that although she confirmed she had a phone call with Hongtai director Zhong Jiewen on October 17, she claims, “I don’t remember the contents,” and “it should not have” mentioned the issue of “labeled sheets.”

She also says that between October and November, Zhong Jiewen never asked her to get “labeled sheets.” On November 19, she says that after Hongtai electrician Huang Jiancai discovered that the fire control master switches for the eight blocks had already been turned off, he also did not ask her to take “labeled sheets.”

Residents file complaints repeatedly about workers smoking; property management: no way to fire them

As for the issue of workers smoking, Du Gan-kun shows the records in the property management office’s Major Repairs Complaint Log. It shows that in July 2024, December, and February 2025, residents complained about the major repairs workers smoking. In particular, on February 24, 2025, the complainant explicitly requested “not just to admonish, but to impose a penalty; otherwise I’m not satisfied.”

The records show that the management body had requested and given Hongye one month to handle and improve the issue of workers smoking. This includes setting up designated smoking areas, and stating that Hongye would confirm the locations where the workers smoking were photographed, give instructions and penalties, or dismiss them directly.

Zheng Zhiying says that even with further communication with Hongye, the situation did not improve much. The management office also continues to receive complaints. She believes that the management office “can’t control” Hongye’s workers, saying, “There’s no way to fire them.”

When property management company Zhibao Engineering director Lin Wenxin continues to testify today, he says that since he took up his position, he has never used forms to close the fire-fighting system. He also says that Hongtai Fire Services director Zhong Jiewen did not inform him that the main switch of the fire-fighting system had no power. Zhong Jiewen first asked him to obtain “labeled sheets” by calling him on the day of the fire. At the time, he said he was temporarily unable to provide them.