UK: Chinese consulate members clash with journalists over Hong Kong graffiti protest

Four members of staff surrounded RFA Cantonese Service reporter Matthew Leung on Saturday afternoon after he started taking photos of them scrubbing away slogans in white paint daubed on the sidewalk outside the Chinese consulate on Manchester’s Denison Road, reported Radio Free Asia.

As per the message shared on Telegram app, the slogans included “F--- PRC!” [People’s Republic of China] “Independence for Hong Kong!” and “Long Live the Republic of China!”

The staff members rushed to the scene and started removing the graffiti.

They threatened RFA reporters after they started clicking images.

“We know your name, we know your address,” one warned RFA’s reporter.

“I know our rights -- if you take photos of us, we have image rights.”

“We don’t want any photos or videos to appear on the Internet. If you publish them, we will notify the police,” one staff member was quoted as saying by RFA.

Simon Cheng, founder and chairperson of the advocacy group Hongkongers in Britain, told RFA the move appeared to be a bid to control media activities on British soil.

“At the very least, it can be said that the consular staff have no sense of their own legal rights or boundaries,” Cheng said. “More importantly, if they start applying China’s method of restricting media freedom and blocking filming in the UK, that’s definitely a form of transnational repression.”