An obvious attack of a protester within the grounds of the Chinese consulate in Manchester is regarding, UK high minister’s spokesperson stated after a video emerged of a person being dragged and overwhelmed via a number of males.
In video pictures circulated via home retailers, a person in a person in a black cap and ponytail used to be hauled thru a gate into the grounds of the Chinese consulate, the place he used to be kicked and punched via 5 males as he lay at the flooring.
One grey-haired guy in a blue beret, glasses and shawl is also observed grabbing the sufferer’s hair.
Police on the scene in the end stepped in the course of the gate and pulled the person out.
The sufferer, who has since been recognized as a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist known as Bob, is claimed to had been taking part within the demonstration towards President Xi Jinping in entrance of the consulate.
“They dragged me inside, they beat me up,” Bob informed the general public broadcaster BBC.
“It’s ridiculous. [The attackers] shouldn’t have done that. We are supposed to have the freedom to say whatever we want here [in the UK].”
“These reports are obviously deeply concerning,” a Downing Street spokesperson informed journalists on Monday.
“I understand Greater Manchester Police responded immediately to the incident. I am conscious that their enquiries are ongoing, so it would be inappropriate for me to comment beyond that.”
Consulate body of workers ‘must be held responsible’
The incidents have sparked sturdy reactions in the United Kingdom, amid top tensions lately between London and Beijing, particularly over Hong Kong, a former British colony ceded in 1997.
The chair of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns, known as on Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to “urgently investigate”.
“The CCP will not import their beating of protestors and denial of free speech to British streets,” Kearns wrote on Twitter. “The Chinese Ambassador should be summoned and if any official has beaten protesters, they must be expelled or prosecuted.”
“If the consulate staff responsible (for the incident) are not held accountable, Hongkongers would live in fear of being kidnapped and persecuted,” Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Nathan Law, who is living in the United Kingdom after fleeing Hong Kong, stated on Twitter.
Sunday’s protest happened at the first day of the twice-a-decade congress of China’s ruling Communist Party in Beijing, all over which Xi is broadly anticipated to win a 3rd management time period.
Several protest banners had previous been positioned outdoor the consulate, one with the phrases, “Heaven will destroy the Chinese Communist Party”, and a cool animated film of Xi dressed in a crown, in keeping with footage from the scene.
The occasions got here at the day of the outlet of the Communist Party congress in Beijing, which is anticipated to present President Xi Jinping a 3rd time period.
“We are not aware of the situation you describe,” a Chinese international ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, informed AFP. “The Chinese embassy and consulates in the UK have always respected the laws of the host country,” he added.
