China criticizes British version of Manchester Consulate incident and speaks of «provocation»
Chinese authorities on Thursday criticized the British version of what happened in October at the Manchester Consulate and said the altercation was a “violent provocation” planned and carried out by “anti-Chinese forces.”
The country’s embassy in the UK has accused the British government in a statement of “siding with the protesters” who came to demonstrate in front of the consulate to demand greater democracy in Hong Kong.
Thus, it has pointed out that London “has decided to blame the Consulate staff”, whom Beijing considers the real victims. “This for the Chinese side is totally unacceptable” and we ask them to retract and avoid “supporting anti-Chinese elements”.
On Wednesday, the Asian giant decided to recall six of its diplomats from British soil precisely in the wake of the incident in which consulate staff went out to try to disperse protesters. One of them was then dragged inside the diplomatic legation to be allegedly assaulted.
The British version states that among the alleged assailants would be Consul General Zheng Xiyuan, one of the most senior Chinese diplomats in the UK. Beijing has now recalled Zhang and five other officials, according to reports by the BBC, which attributed this departure to an attempt by Beijing to pre-empt possible retaliation from the British side, especially if the Chinese Embassy did not cooperate in police investigations.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Wednesday that images of the altercation show “totally unacceptable behavior by a number of individuals” near the Consulate’s entrance and stressed that freedom of expression is “essential to democracy”.
