Police are looking for movies and searching by way of CCTV footage after an “absolutely unacceptable” assault on a protester on the Chinese consulate in Manchester.
Police needed to rescue Bob Chan after he was dragged into the grounds of the constructing on Sunday and gave the impression to be assaulted by a gaggle of individuals – with a Tory MP claiming a senior Chinese diplomat was concerned.
Investigators have been acquiring statements from “as many of those involved as possible” and are interesting for anybody with footage of the assault to get in contact.
“A man suffered several minor physical injuries in the consulate grounds after an initially peaceful protest appeared to escalate – and our wide-ranging inquiries include looking into why this was the case,” Greater Manchester Police stated.
An officer additionally injured his hand in the course of the incident, after intervening to assist take away the protester from the world.
No arrests have been made but, however police have vowed to proceed their inquiries “for as long as necessary”.
Mr Chan, who fled Hong Kong to come back to the UK final March, stated he has been having nightmares for the reason that incident about his household who nonetheless reside there being focused.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly informed Sky News that China’s cost d’affaires, Yang Xiaoguang, had been spoken to over the incident.
“We said this is absolutely unacceptable, that the protests were peaceful and legal. They were on British soil, and it is absolutely unacceptable for this kind of behaviour,” he stated.
Mr Cleverly added that he’ll resolve if any extra motion must be taken after he has seen the small print of the police investigation.
Diplomatic workers at overseas embassies often have immunity from arrest and prosecution.
But senior Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by China, stated the federal government’s response was “outrageous” as he known as for ministers to expel the diplomats recognized in a number of movies dragging and hitting Mr Chan, and in addition pulling his hair.
He stated all that occurred was a Chinese official and a Foreign Office official met and “gave them a rap over the knuckles”.
“This is a wake-up call to go faster and harder,” he informed a information convention on Wednesday.
“We can no longer use trading with China as an excuse.”
‘They began to kick and punch me’
Mr Chan, who was demonstrating over the erosion of democracy in Hong Kong, informed Sky News he thought he would have died if a police officer hadn’t helped him.
“It all happened too fast,” stated Mr Chan. “I tried holding on to the gates but couldn’t hold for too long – they then threw me to the ground and started to kick and punch me.”
He was left with bruising, cuts to his face and a bald patch the place his hair was pulled out.
“They might do some bad things to my family in Hong Kong,” added the protester.
“I’m worried about that, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t regret going to the protest because if I don’t speak out, the world wouldn’t see this ridiculous thing happen to me.”
In a information convention on Wednesday, he added that he was participating within the “peaceful protest” exterior the consulate with different demonstrators, when a “masked man” tried to take down their show.
He stated the person “started acting aggressively” in direction of him, and different “masked men” quickly appeared, earlier than attempting to pull him into the grounds of the consulate.
“I’m shocked and hurt by this unprovoked attack. I never thought something like this would happen in the UK,” Mr Chan stated.
“I fell quite anxious… it’s making it quite difficult to sleep at night.”
He added that he would nonetheless protest in opposition to China as a result of it’s about freedom and believes the UK stays secure for Hong Kongers.
“The harder the Chinese authorities try to crack down on us, the more we need to protest,” he stated.
Protest designed to ‘provoke, harass and alarm’
The Consul General of China in Manchester, Zhen Xiyuan, had a really completely different story to Mr Chan and the police, and claimed the protest was “designed to provoke, harass, alarm and distress” workers and the group of protesters “stormed” the consulate grounds.
In a letter to police, he additionally claimed one of many protesters grabbed a member of consular workers “by the neck and refused to let go” in the course of the ensuing scuffle.
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“Despite several of our staff attempting to pull him off, the attacker continued assaulting our staff member, and so our staff were forced to disentangle his hands,” he stated.
“Eventually the attacker was removed with the assistance of the police but not before our staff member received injuries.”
The veteran Chinese Communist Party official additionally claimed the banners used in the course of the protest featured a “volume of deeply offensive imagery and slogans”, together with an image of the Chinese president with a noose round his neck.
“I am disappointed that the police did not do more to ensure that the protesters exercised their right in a respectful rather than aggressive manner,” he wrote.
What is the scenario in Hong Kong?
China‘s overseas ministry stated on Wednesday that it had additionally lodged representations with the UK over what it described as malicious harassment by lawless components.
Many folks concern Hong Kong‘s freedoms are being whittled away additional because the Chinese authorities asserts larger management over the territory.
A nationwide safety regulation, which got here in two years in the past, gave sweeping new powers to jail folks for dissent and protest.
Hong Kong was meant to retain larger freedoms than the Chinese mainland when Britain handed it again in 1997 below the “one country, two systems” precept for at the least 50 years however crackdowns on freedom have been going down since mass protests started in 2019.
Source: information.sky.com”