Chinese diplomats who beat up a protester in Manchester were allowed to “flee like cowards,” senior Tories claimed today, furious at ministers for being a soft touch. In October, a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester demonstrating outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester was attacked by staff, including the country’s consul-general.
The Chinese diplomats involved have all left the country and are refusing to cooperate with a police investigation into the matter.
Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, who chairs the select committee on foreign affairs, demanded answers after accusing the government of failing to take “meaningful action”.
She asked an urgent question in the House of Commons, saying: “The Consul General and five others mistreated a refugee on British soil and instead of being deported or prosecuted, they have been allowed to slip away – to flee like cowards – what makes their guilt even clearer.
“By giving them a week’s notice, which is so much beyond the Vienna convention, we essentially denied Bob Chan any sense of fairness.
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“At this point, I’m afraid the government is being opaque and I can’t identify any sensible action they’ve taken other than informing them to flee this country and essentially allowing the Chinese Communist Party to enter now. claim it was simply the end of the diplomats’ term in Britain.
“They weren’t removed, they weren’t expelled, it was just time for them to leave our country.
“I am not asking the government to be harsh for the sake of harshness; justice is needed to deter future action and to ensure that we stand by the refugees who come to this country for safety.”
The State Department had asked China to either waive the diplomatic immunity granted to the officials so that they could be questioned by police or to exclude them from the country.
There was anger after Britain gave Beijing seven days’ notice of its demands for the officials to return home, much longer than the three days required by UN rules.
China claimed that the Consul General had left the UK after he “completed his term”.
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Tory MP Tim Loughton accused the diplomats of “rushing off into the night”, adding: “At least now the government should say in hindsight that they are persona non grata.”
Meanwhile, Sir Desmond Swayne accused the government of being shy and warned: “China, of course, always shows its absolute contempt when it identifies weakness among its adversaries and counterparts.”
Commenting on the outraged MPs, Foreign Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the government’s “steadfast diplomacy and our actions show how seriously we have taken this incident”.
She added: “We are disappointed that these individuals will not be interviewed.
It is therefore right that those identified by police as involved in the scandalous scenes in Manchester are no longer or will soon cease to be consular staff accredited to the UK.
“During this process, we made it clear that in the UK we abide by the rule of law, follow due process and respect the operational independence of our police.
“Our firm diplomacy and our actions demonstrate the seriousness with which we have taken this incident and the appropriate outcome that has now been achieved.
“The UK will always use our diplomacy to demonstrate the importance of complying with the rule of law and we expect others to do the same.”