On October 18th, Mr. ZHENG Xiyuan, the Consul General of China in Manchester wrote a letter to Mr. Stephen Wiggins, the Chief Inspector for Greater Manchester Police, in regard to the incident which occurred on Sunday October 16th. The main points are as follows:
“As you will be aware, a protest took place in front of the Consulate in Denison Road organized by a group of the so-called Hong Kong independence activists on Sunday Oct.16th, which has been widely reported in the news.
At this protest, a large volume of deeply offensive imagery and slogans were displayed and similar slogans were also shouted by the protesters throughout.
The display of these slogans and images was, I believe, deliberately designed to provoke, harass, alarm and distress our consular staff and thus constitutes behaviour contrary to both Section 4 and Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.
The slogans and banners were positioned very close to the Consulate’s main entrance and in my opinion, this should not have been allowed as it added to the provocative nature of the messages and images. The protesters were asked politely to remove the slogans and imagery but refused to do so.
We are respectful of the right to protest, as guaranteed under UK law, and a number of protests have been held in front of the Consulate over the years, all of which have passed off uneventfully.
On this occasion, however, 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.
At one point the Consulate grounds were stormed by a group of protesters and members of consular staff were required to physically fend off unauthorized entry and subsequent assaults.
During the ensuing scuffle, one of the protesters grabbed a member of consular staff by the neck and refused to let go. In an effort to free the staff member, other members of staff pulled their colleague into our compound. Despite this, the attacker persistently refused to let go and plunged into our property himself.
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.
Eventually the attacker was removed with the assistance of the police but not before our staff member received injuries.
Since the incident occurred, I have also seen YouTube footage of another member of our consulate staff being viciously kicked and beaten whilst on the floor. This can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/21VCVdJrIWI. This is deeply concerning and clear evidence that the protest was not peaceful as has been suggested.
I am sure that you will be aware of the UK’s obligation to protect consular staff in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. With that in mind I would ask that greater efforts be made in the future to ensure that any exercise of the right to protest outside our Consulate is exercised in a lawful manner and that the safety of our staff is secured.”
