LONDON — British lawmakers are demanding a tougher U.K. government response to aggression against a Hong Kong protester who was beaten up outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester on Sunday.
Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith described the government’s reaction so far as “wholly inadequate” and criticized ministers for failing to summon Chinese ambassador Zheng Zeguang immediately after the incident.
“We have to show that this is intolerable,” Duncan Smith told a press conference in Westminster Wednesday, adding ministers “had to be dragged” to the House of Commons on Tuesday to answer an urgent question.
Footage from the weekend incident shows unidentified men emerging from the consulate compound, tearing down a satirical portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping erected by protesters outside, and then attacking a protester who had been dragged into the consulate grounds.
The video shows the men landing a series of blows upon the protester, who later identified himself to the BBC as “Bob Chan.” He told reporters he was “dragged inside and attacked” before being rescued by police. Greater Manchester Police confirmed his account.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) summoned China’s second-most senior diplomat in the U.K., Yang Xiaoguang, over the incident. He was received Tuesday afternoon by Dan Chugg, the FCDO’s director for North East Asia and China, who reiterated the government’s expectation that all diplomats and consular staff based in the U.K. must respect British law. Zheng is understood to have been overseas at the time.
But, vowing to push for another urgent Commons question Thursday, Duncan Smith slammed the FCDO for delegating the meeting with Yang to a civil servant — instead of giving the task to a minister.
Alicia Kearns, newly elected chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, has directly accused the Chinese consul general of “ripping down posters” and said those involved in the aggression against Chan are “officials who have been recognized as member[s] of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader and co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international cross-party group of legislators with a hardline approach to China, urged ministers to expel from the U.K. all those who are identified as taking part in the incident — without waiting for a prosecution.
“Anybody involved in those scenes is not welcome here … they must go,” he said.
Afzal Khan, Labour MP for Manchester Gorton, said the Chinese consul general should be declared as “persona non-grata” in the U.K. and told reporters that the allegation Chinese Communist Party officials are involved in the incident is “deeply concerning and must be investigated urgently.”
‘Peaceful protest’
Earlier Wednesday, the U.K.’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly did not rule out prosecution of any Chinese officials involved in the incident, but said police must first establish all the facts.
Duncan Smith said the FCDO is wrongly worrying about “tit-for-tat” and potential retaliation from Beijing, and warned the government would appear “weak” to other countries if it failed to expel those involved. “What they’ve got to do is what is right, not what they think would be acceptable to the other side,” he said.
Speaking at the same press conference, Chan said he will give a statement to Greater Manchester Police, which is conducting an investigation. He urged witnesses to the incident to contribute to the probe with their own stories, and declined to reveal his identity amid fears for his safety and that of his family.
“It was a peaceful protest,” Chan said, before describing in broken English how he was dragged by the hair into the grounds of the consulate, tried to hold on to the gates and was kicked and punched by masked men.
The incident, he said, had left him with bruises around his eyes, and on his hands, neck and back. “Other protesters tried to get me out of this situation but to no avail. I’m shocked because I never thought something like this could happen in the U.K.”
China’s foreign ministry has rejected the protester’s account, arguing Tuesday that “troublemakers illegally entered” the consulate.
In an update Wednesday, Greater Manchester Police assistant chief constable Rob Potts said the investigation is “complex and sensitive” and “will take time.”
“Our experienced detectives are diligently working through a lot of evidence and statements to ensure they have a comprehensive understanding of the timeline of events that led to this initially peaceful protest unexpectedly escalating in the way it appears to have done,” he said.
