HONG KONG — Two months of boiling antigovernment protests have divided Hong Kong’s people. Now, the unrest has pitted one of the territory’s best-known international brands against some of its own employees.

The Chinese government has forced Cathay Pacific Airways, a longtime emblem of Hong Kong’s proud status as a global capital, to bar staffers who support or participate in the territory’s protests from doing any work involving flights to mainland China. As part of the same demands, issued on Friday, it ordered that the airline begin submitting information about all crew members flying to — or above — the mainland to the Chinese authorities for prior approval.

Cathay said separately on Saturday that it had removed from flying duties a pilot who was charged with rioting in Hong Kong, and that it had fired two airport ground staff for misconduct. Earlier in the week, the airline said it would investigate accusations that its employees had leaked travel information for a Hong Kong police soccer team.

[More than 150 flights at Hong Kong’s airport were canceled on Monday as protesters flooded the main terminal.]