There are growing concerns over Beijing’s attempts to restrict political expression overseas
Xi Jinping’s leadership of China is now indefinite. No one doubts what his third term will bring: more rigid political controls. The party demands obedience at home. It asserts itself more confidently abroad. A senior official told reporters that Chinese diplomacy would maintain its “fighting spirit”.
That remark came days after Manchester police said that they were investigating the assault of a Hong Kong activist who had been dragged into the Chinese consulate’s grounds when men from the building disrupted a protest on the street outside. Asked about footage of him pulling the man’s hair the consul general, Zheng Xiyuan, denied attacking anyone but also said it was his “duty”. Police have now said they are investigating the full circumstances, and footage shows another man, apparently from the consulate, also being assaulted. What is beyond question is that the protest was peaceful until the officials came out and tore down a poster, and that China’s chargé d’affaires in London has warned that “[providing] shelter to the Hong Kong independence elements will in the end only bring disaster to Britain”.
