A man protesting outside a Chinese Consulate in the United Kingdom said he was dragged inside the grounds by masked men, kicked and punched, in an attack that British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly described as “unacceptable” on Wednesday.
China has disputed the account of events that occurred during a protest against Chinese President Xi Jinping outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester, England, on Sunday, claiming that protesters stormed its grounds.
It is the latest diplomatic squabble between the United Kingdom and China, whose relationship has deteriorated in recent years.
Social media footage showed a man in a black cap and ponytail being hauled through a gate into the consular grounds, where he was assaulted by five men as he lay on the ground.
Bob Chan, a 30-year-old Hong Kong native, said the attack began when masked men emerged from the consulate to take banners from peaceful protesters.
“I then found myself being dragged into the consulate grounds.” “I clung to the gate while getting kicked and punched,” he told reporters. “I couldn’t hold on for long and be eventually dragged into the consulate grounds.”
He claimed that the attack ended only when a police officer intervened to free him. According to reports, he suffered bruising to his eye, head, neck, and all over his back.
“This unprovoked attack has shocked and hurt me,” he said, adding that he was concerned for his and his family’s safety.
Britain summoned China’s Charge d’Affaires in London on Tuesday to explain what had occurred, with Cleverly claiming that the protest, which involved 30 to 40 people, including Hong Kong citizens now living in the UK, had been peaceful and legal.
“They were on British soil, and this kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable,” Cleverly told reporters.
Beijing said it had complained to Britain “about the malicious harassment incident.”
The Chinese Consul-General, Zheng Xiyuan, wrote to the police to express his dissatisfaction with how they handled the protest, which included images of Xi with a noose around his neck and slogans in Chinese reading “God Kill CPC” (Communist Party of China).
“At one point, the consulate grounds were stormed by a group of protesters, and consular staff were required to physically fend off the unauthorized entry and subsequent assaults,” he wrote in a letter made public.
He claimed that during a scuffle, a protester grabbed a member of staff and refused to let go. Colleagues drew them inside, and the attacker “continued to assault our staff.”
The protest took place at the start of China’s ruling Communist Party’s twice-decade congress in Beijing, where Xi is widely expected to win a third term as president.
Police said they were investigating and asked for more video of the incident, adding that no arrests had been made.
Cleverly stated that once the police investigation is completed, Britain will decide “what else we might need to do.”
Some lawmakers believe the diplomats involved should be expelled immediately.
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith said the government should have informed the ambassador that they were sending a number of people home.
He claimed that video evidence proved the Consul-claims General’s were “complete nonsense.” Duncan Smith was among the British lawmakers and others sanctioned by China last year for spreading “lies” about alleged human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region.
Relations between the United Kingdom and China have become increasingly strained since Beijing enacted a national security law in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise that its liberties would be protected.
Britain has been harshly critical of the law, alleging that it has been used to suppress dissent, while Beijing accuses London of interfering and causing trouble.
One source of contention is a British program that allows nearly three million Hong Kong residents to apply for citizenship.
