The man in his thirties demonstrated in front of the Chinese Manchester consulate on Sunday when he was beaten in the diplomatic grounds. Beijing denounces “troublemakers.”
Le Monde with AFP
After strong reactions to the United Kingdom, London summoned a high Chinese diplomat on Tuesday, October 18 to ask for explanations after the violent attack of which was the victim of a demonstrator at the Consulate of China de Manchester.
An authorized demonstration was held in front of the China Consulate in Manchester (northern England) Sunday October 16, the day when the Congress of the Communist Party opened in Beijing. It brought together pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong, opposed to the takeover by Beijing of this former British Chinese territory, which has long benefited from unrivaled freedoms elsewhere in China.
British Police Are Investigating An Assault We protest who was beaten by Several Men After Being Dragged Inside… https://t.co/tnwyypkqih
Viral videos show individuals getting out of the consulate to destroy the banners of the demonstrators. Violent altercations ensue and on images, a demonstrator is seen on the ground, receiving blows in the diplomatic enclosure.
indignation in the British parliament
These incidents were the subject of an urgent question in the British Parliament on Tuesday. Before the deputies, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Jesse Norman said that London summoned the Chinese official to express the “deep concern” of the British government “about this incident and demand explanations about acts consulate staff “.
“The summons of foreign representatives is not a decision taken lightly,” insisted a spokesperson for Prime Minister Liz Truss. “And while the investigations continue, we will be very clear to the Chinese authorities on the fact that the right to demonstrate peacefully in the United Kingdom must be respected,” he warned.
The project manager is the second highest representative of Chinese diplomacy in London after the ambassador, who is outside the United Kingdom, while the Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held in Beijing.
China points the finger at “troublemakers”
This affair comes in a context already tense in recent years between London and Beijing, especially about Hong Kong.
China gave its version of the facts on Tuesday. “Troubled faults have illegally entered the China Consulate General in Manchester and endangered the security of the diplomatic enclosure,” Beijing spokesman Wang Wenbin told the press. The United Kingdom must “take (more) effective measures to strengthen the protection of the China Consulate and its staff,” he insisted.
Men came out of the consulate to destroy the banners and “when we tried to stop them, they pulled me inside (from the consulate), they beat me,” testified to the BBC the Demonstrating beaten in the diplomatic grounds, aged in his thirties.
Most of the figures of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement are today in prison or have abandoned politics. Others fled abroad after the imposition by Beijing in 2020 of a Draconian law on national security, one year after the monster demonstrations in this territory. During a speech at the opening of the Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping praised the transition of “chaos to governance” on Sunday in Hong Kong.