Cathay Pacific has been accused of violating Hong Kong’s authoritarian National Security Law after it showed an episode of the popular Family Guy cartoon series, which includes a short scene depicting the infamous ‘Tank Man’ in Tiananmen Square.
Complaints were raised against the Hong Kong flag carrier on social media by passengers who had witnessed the scene, with some suggesting the airline had broken a controversial law enacted in 2020 that bans any activity that could be considered “secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces.”
The law was introduced by Beijing following mass pro-democracy protests that rocked the territory the year prior. The NSL seriously curtailed the freedom of Hong Kongers to take part in demonstrations that questioned the authority of the mainland Chinese government.
Although the bloody events that unfolded on June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen Square are heavily censored on the mainland, Hong Kongers have long commemorated the actions of pro-democracy protestors on that day in a bid to protect the territory’s democratic status.
That is, however, until the National Security Law was introduced.
The cartoon that caused the recent uproar includes a short seven-second scene in which protagonist Peter Griffin stands next to a character portraying the infamous ‘Tank Man’ in front of a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square.
“We emphasise that the programme’s content does not represent Cathay Pacific’s standpoint and have immediately arranged to have the programme removed as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for the airline said in response to the complaints.
Cathay Pacific was founded in 1946 by Swire Pacific, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate with deep-rooted links to the United Kingdom. Swire’s parent company is still based in London.
Although Swire Pacific still owns a majority stake in Cathay Pacific, the airline is also partly owned by Air China, which is majority-owned by the Chinese state.
In recent years, Cathay Pacific has attempted to align itself closer to Beijing, although a series of embarrassing scandals have rocked the airline’s reputation with mainland Chinese passengers.
Last May, the carrier was blasted by mainland Chinese social media commentators and even lawmakers after flight attendants were accused of making fun of Mandarin-speaking passengers on a flight from the Chinese city of Chengdu to Hong Kong.
The flight attendants had allegedly mocked the passengers because they did not speak Cantonese or English. The passenger had attempted to ask for a blanket in English but mistakenly used the word ‘carpet’ which led to a flight attendant snapping back: “If you cannot say ‘blanket’ in English, you cannot have it.”
Another of the crew members then allegedly told the passengers that they were welcome to lay on the floor if they wanted a carpet rather than a blanket.
In response to that debacle, the airline quickly sacked the flight attendants involved and issued a groveling apology while promising to improve its treatment of mainland Chinese passengers.
A month later, Cathay Pacific said it would start hiring mainland Chinese flight attendants for the first time in its history. Cathay Pacific CEO Ronald Lam said it had already been the airline’s intention to hire Putonghua-speaking customers as the airline emerged from the pandemic.
Like many airlines, Cathay Pacific uses a third-party supplier to source content for its inflight entertainment system. The carrier has reportedly ordered the unnamed supplier to carry out an investigation and improve censorship of what is chosen to avoid a similar debacle.
I rather suspect that Cathay would not choose Family Guy as a medium to express unhappiness with the government.