Police appeal for video footage after 'absolutely unacceptable' attack on protester at Chinese consulate in Manchester
China's foreign ministry says it has also lodged representations with the UK over what it called malicious harassment by lawless elements.
Thursday 20 October 2022 00:12, UK
Police are searching for videos and looking through CCTV footage after an "absolutely unacceptable" attack on a protester at the Chinese consulate in Manchester.
Police had to rescue Bob Chan after he was dragged into the grounds of the building on Sunday and appeared to be assaulted by a group of people - with a Tory MP claiming a senior Chinese diplomat was involved.
Investigators have been obtaining statements from "as many of those involved as possible" and are appealing for anyone with footage of the attack to get in touch.
"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 said.
An officer also injured his hand during the incident, after intervening to help remove the protester from the area.
No arrests have been made yet, but police have vowed to continue their inquiries "for as long as necessary".
Mr Chan, who fled Hong Kong to come to the UK last March, said he has been having nightmares since the incident about his family who still live there being targeted.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told Sky News that China's charge 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 said.
Mr Cleverly added that he will decide if any more action needs to be taken after he has seen the details of the police investigation.
Diplomatic staff at foreign embassies usually have immunity from arrest and prosecution.
But senior Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by China, said the government's response was "outrageous" as he called for ministers to expel the diplomats identified in multiple videos dragging and hitting Mr Chan, and also pulling his hair.
He said all that happened 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 told a news conference on Wednesday.
"We can no longer use trading with China as an excuse."
'They started to kick and punch me'
Mr Chan, who was demonstrating over the erosion of democracy in Hong Kong, told Sky News he thought he would have died if a police officer hadn't helped him.
"It all happened too fast," said 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 where 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 news conference on Wednesday, he added that he was taking part in the "peaceful protest" outside the consulate with other demonstrators, when a "masked man" attempted to take down their display.
He said the man "started acting aggressively" towards him, and other "masked men" soon appeared, before trying to drag 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 said.
"I fell quite anxious... it's making it quite difficult to sleep at night."
He added that he would still protest against China because it is about freedom and believes the UK remains safe for Hong Kongers.
"The harder the Chinese authorities try to crack down on us, the more we need to protest," he said.
Protest designed to 'provoke, harass and alarm'
The Consul General of China in Manchester, Zhen Xiyuan, had a very different story to Mr Chan and the police, and claimed the protest was "designed to provoke, harass, alarm and distress" staff and the group of protesters "stormed" the consulate grounds.
In a letter to police, he also claimed one of the protesters grabbed a member of consular staff "by the neck and refused to let go" during 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 said.
"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 also claimed the banners used during the protest featured a "volume of deeply offensive imagery and slogans", including a picture of the Chinese president with a noose around 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 situation in Hong Kong?
China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it had also lodged representations with the UK over what it described as malicious harassment by lawless elements.
Many people fear Hong Kong's freedoms are being whittled away further as the Chinese government asserts greater control over the territory.
A national security law, which came in two years ago, gave sweeping new powers to jail people for dissent and protest.
Hong Kong was meant to retain greater freedoms than the Chinese mainland when Britain handed it back in 1997 under the "one country, two systems" principle for at least 50 years but crackdowns on freedom have been taking place since mass protests began in 2019.