The British government is considering further action after the “unacceptable” treatment of a protester who was on Sunday seen being pulled into the grounds of a Chinese consulate and beaten, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs James Cleverly said yesterday.
The altercation occurred during a protest against Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Manchester, England. It led to Britain on Tuesday summoning the charge d’affaires at the Chinese embassy in London to explain what had happened.
“That was unacceptable,” Cleverly said, adding the protests had been peaceful and legal.
Photo: AP
“They were on British soil and it is absolutely unacceptable for this kind of behavior,” he said.
The protest, involving 30 to 40 people, including Hong Kongers who live in Britain, took place at the start of a twice-a-decade congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, at which Xi is widely expected to win a third leadership term.
CHINESE DISMISSAL
Photo: EPA-EFE
Speaking about the protest in Beijing on Tuesday, a spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said “disturbing elements” had illegally entered the grounds of the consulate and had endangered its security.
“Diplomatic institutions of any country have the right to take the necessary measures to safeguard the peace and dignity of their premises,” the spokesman said.
Greater Manchester Police said they were investigating what had occurred at the planned protest on Sunday, with footage showing a man in a black cap and ponytail being hauled through a gate into the consular grounds, where he was kicked and punched by five men as he lay on the ground.
“A small group of men came out of the building and a man was dragged into the Consulate grounds and assaulted,” a police statement said.
It said that a man in his 30s had suffered injuries and needed hospital treatment.
“My understanding is the Greater Manchester Police will be conducting an investigation into this and when I see the details of that investigation, I’ll then decide what more we might need to do on that,” Cleverly said.
Relations between Britain and China have been tense in the past few years, most notably since Beijing introduced a National Security Law in Hong Kong, a former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise that its freedoms would be protected.
Britain has been highly critical of the law, which it says has been used to suppress dissent, while Beijing has accused London of interfering and creating trouble.
The issue has been exacerbated by a program that allows almost 3 million people in Hong Kong to apply for a British visa, and a decision by China to impose sanctions on some British lawmakers in the ruling Conservative Party for spreading “lies” about alleged human rights abuses in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.
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