Hong Kong police inadvertently promote a Taiwanese online game with a warning against ‘secessionist’ content

Reversed Front said the game was the most downloaded app on Hong Kong’s App Store before its removal

Originally published on Global Voices

This report was written by Irene Chan and Hillary Leung and published in Hong Kong Free Press on June 11, 2025. The following edited version is published as part of a content partnership agreement with Global Voices.

The Hong Kong national security police have warned against downloading a role-playing game app on June 10, claiming it promotes Hong Kong and Taiwanese independence.

By the morning of June 11, the game app had vanished from Hong Kong’s App Store, less than 24 hours after the warning had been issued. However, Google searches for the game have surged 1,000 percent.

In a statement, the police force’s National Security Department said “Reversed Front: Bonfire” – a mobile game by Taiwanese developers ESC Taiwan – promotes secessionist agendas, advocates “armed revolution” and the overthrow of the “fundamental system of the People’s Republic of China.”

The game “also has an intention to provoke hatred towards the Central Authorities and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” police said.

Anyone who publishes related content, including sharing the game online, may be accused of inciting secession and inciting subversion, both offences under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

Doing so may also violate the city’s homegrown national security law, also known as Article 23, which criminalises “offences in connection with seditious intention.”

The law defines a person with seditious intention as one inciting hatred or disaffection against the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese governments. The maximum penalty for the offence is up to 10 years’ imprisonment if it involves an external force.

According to the description on the gaming platform Steam, “Reversed Front” takes players through a war to “overthrow the communist regime.” Players can assume different roles, such as Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, the Uyghurs, and Mongolia. Below is a promotional video from the Game's YouTube channel:

The developers describe the communists in the game as “heavy-handed” and corrupt due to “malicious ethnic cleansing and an obstreperous military.”

The national security police said those who have downloaded the app should “uninstall it immediately” and urged the public not to provide funding for the game, for example, by making in-app purchases.

Vanished from the HK App Store

“Reversed Front: Bonfire” was initially available on both Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. However, it was removed from the Play Store in May for failing to ban players from using hate speech, according to Reversed Front’s social media post.

When HKFP checked at around 8 pm on June 10, the app could no longer be found in Hong Kong’s Google Play Store, but it was still available in the city's Apple App Store.

However, at around 10 am on June 11, the app also disappeared from the App Store in Hong Kong.

In a Facebook post on June 11 afternoon, Reversed Front said that the game was the most downloaded app on Hong Kong’s App Store on June 10 evening.

Netizens commented on Facebook, saying, “thanks to the government, now I know there is such a game.”

Meanwhile, Google Trends, a tool that measures the frequency of search queries, showed that 逆統戰 — the Chinese name of the mobile game — was the most searched topic in the city on June 11.

Google recorded more than 20,000 searches for the game over the past 21 hours — an increase of 1,000 percent.

According to a BBC report in 2020, ESC Taiwan raised around NTD 19 million (USD 640,000) online to create a similarly themed tabletop game.