A pro-democracy protester has said he was attacked inside the grounds of the Chinese consulate in Manchester before being rescued by British police and other protesters.
The man was part of a small group demonstrating on Sunday at the start of the 20th Communist party congress in Beijing, which is expected to extend the rule of the leader, Xi Jinping (習近平), for a further five years.
The man who was beaten up, named only as Bob, said he was punched and kicked and his hair pulled, and the attack left him bleeding and bruised. A photograph published by VOA Cantonese showed some of his injuries, just below his eyes.
Photo: Reuters
“They shouldn’t have done that. We are supposed to have freedom to say whatever we want here [in the UK],” Bob, originally from Hong Kong, told the BBC.
Images from the attack show a grey-haired man in a blue scarf holding Bob by his hair just inside consulate gates, as other men attack him and a British police officer tries to pull him away.
That man had previously come out of the consulate, demanded the removal of satirical posters of Xi, and torn down a protest banner.
The exiled Hong Kong politician Nathan Law (羅冠聰) said the attack had terrifying implications for Hong Kong citizens who had fled China’s crackdown to the UK, and called for a strong British government response.
“If the consulate staff responsible are not held accountable, Hongkongers would live in fear of being kidnapped and persecuted,” he said on Twitter. “Foreign and home secretaries must investigate and protect our community and people in the UK.”
The Foreign Office did not respond to requests for comments.
A spokesperson for the consulate told the BBC the protesters had “hung an insulting portrait of the Chinese president at the main entrance.”
“This would be intolerable and unacceptable for any diplomatic and consular missions of any country. Therefore, we condemn this deplorable act with strong indignation and firm opposition,” the spokesperson added.
There was widespread condemnation of the attack in Britain and calls for a strong response from activists and politicians across the political divide.
The former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith called for the home secretary, Suella Braverman, to “look into this urgently.”
“The UK government must demand a full apology from the Chinese ambassador to the UK and demand those responsible are sent home to China,” he tweeted.
Sarah Owen, the Labor MP for Luton North, shared video of the attack, warning that it threatened the security of refugees.
“This is deeply worrying. An investigation needs to happen immediately, with answers given, to ensure people fleeing persecution feel safe our country,” she said.
Benedict Rogers, the chief executive of the campaign group Hong Kong Watch, said: “This appalling act of thuggery by CCP (Chinese Communist party) in Manchester cannot go unpunished.
“[The Foreign Office] must summon [Chinese ambassador] Zeng Zeguang (鄭澤光) first thing tomorrow morning, prosecute those responsible, and if they can’t be prosecuted, expel CCP officials responsible — without delay.”
In his speech opening the party congress in Beijing, Xi celebrated China’s crushing of Hong Kong’s autonomy, and warned Taiwan that the “wheels of history” were turning towards Beijing taking control of the island democracy.
Britain opened a path to citizenship for Hong Kong residents after Beijing’s crackdown on a pro-democracy movement swept away the city’s autonomy and the rights including freedom of expression and protest.
There have already been more than 140,000 applications for visas under the scheme and the British government expects hundreds of thousands of people to move to the UK within five years.
Water management is one of the most powerful forces shaping modern Taiwan’s landscapes and politics. Many of Taiwan’s township and county boundaries are defined by watersheds. The current course of the mighty Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) was largely established by Japanese embankment building during the 1918-1923 period. Taoyuan is dotted with ponds constructed by settlers from China during the Qing period. Countless local civic actions have been driven by opposition to water projects. Last week something like 2,600mm of rain fell on southern Taiwan in seven days, peaking at over 2,800mm in Duona (多納) in Kaohsiung’s Maolin District (茂林), according to
Aug. 11 to Aug. 17 Those who never heard of architect Hsiu Tse-lan (修澤蘭) must have seen her work — on the reverse of the NT$100 bill is the Yangmingshan Zhongshan Hall (陽明山中山樓). Then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) reportedly hand-picked her for the job and gave her just 13 months to complete it in time for the centennial of Republic of China founder Sun Yat-sen’s birth on Nov. 12, 1966. Another landmark project is Garden City (花園新城) in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) — Taiwan’s first mountainside planned community, which Hsiu initiated in 1968. She was involved in every stage, from selecting
The latest edition of the Japan-Taiwan Fruit Festival took place in Kaohsiung on July 26 and 27. During the weekend, the dockside in front of the iconic Music Center was full of food stalls, and a stage welcomed performers. After the French-themed festival earlier in the summer, this is another example of Kaohsiung’s efforts to make the city more international. The event was originally initiated by the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association in 2022. The goal was “to commemorate [the association’s] 50th anniversary and further strengthen the longstanding friendship between Japan and Taiwan,” says Kaohsiung Director-General of International Affairs Chang Yen-ching (張硯卿). “The first two editions
It was Christmas Eve 2024 and 19-year-old Chloe Cheung was lying in bed at home in Leeds when she found out the Chinese authorities had put a bounty on her head. As she scrolled through Instagram looking at festive songs, a stream of messages from old school friends started coming into her phone. Look at the news, they told her. Media outlets across east Asia were reporting that Cheung, who had just finished her A-levels, had been declared a threat to national security by officials in Hong Kong. There was an offer of HK$1m (NT$3.81 million) to anyone who could assist
RSS