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Protesters dragged, beaten up at China's Manchester consulate_我的网站

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一 | London, Oct 17 (UNI) A Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was pulled into Chinese consulate grounds in Manchester and beaten up over alleged display of an inappropriate portrait of Xi Jinping.

The UK Foreign Office said it was urgently seeking clarity on the incident. Greater Manchester Police has launched an investigation, the BBC reported.

The BBC filmed unidentified men coming out of the consulate and forcing the man inside the compound, before he escaped with the help of police and other demonstrators.

The protester told the BBC "they dragged me inside, they beat me up".

A consulate spokesperson said protesters had displayed an insulting portrait of China's president.

Speaking after the incident, the protester, called Bob, told BBC that "mainlanders" - people from mainland China - had come out of the consulate and destroyed their posters.

"As we tried to stop them, they dragged me inside, they beat me up," he said, adding that he was then pulled out by the police.

"It's ridiculous. They shouldn't have done that. We are supposed to have freedom to say whatever we want here (in the UK)."

Consulate staff had previously asked the protesters to move to the opposite side of the street, the BBC said.

There were two police officers present at the protest, the BBC report added, saying but several more appeared within minutes of the altercation beginning.

They gathered at the gates of the compound trying to break up the fighting and move protesters back.

One police officer entered the consulate grounds and pulled the man who had been dragged inside back out.

At least eight men, some of whom were wearing helmets and protective vests, then returned to the consulate building.

The consulate is on UK soil, but cannot be entered without consent. Any offence committed on diplomatic premises is subject to UK law, but employees may hold diplomatic immunity.

Reacting on Twitter, former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said the UK government should demand a full apology from the Chinese ambassador, and that those involved should be sent back to China.

The demonstrators were protesting as the Communist Party congress began in Beijing.

Chinese President Xi had said he had turned the situation in Hong Kong from "chaos to governance", referring to China's suppression of pro-democracy protests there.

A spokesperson for the consulate said the protesters had "hung an insulting portrait of the Chinese president at the main entrance".

"This would be intolerable and unacceptable for any diplomatic and consular missions of any country. Therefore, we condemn this deplorable act with strong indignation and firm opposition," the spokesperson added.

A spokesperson told the BBC, Greater Manchester Police was aware of the incident. "Officers were present and responded immediately to diffuse the situation," they said. "Enquiries are ongoing at this time to understand the full circumstances."

UNI ING。

Trade File photo: VCG
Months-long American export license delays are costing the US billions in exports and eroding American market share globally, the US-China Business Council (USCBC) said in a flash survey released on Tuesday.
The survey noted that poorly calibrated US export controls weaken American companies in China, ceding market share to foreign competitors while reducing the profits available for research and development (R&D).
Designed originally to safeguard national security and serve legitimate foreign policy interests, the US export licensing system has become increasingly politicized, gradually turning into a political tool that obstructs normal economic and trade exchanges. The USCBC survey serves as a stark reminder of how such overreach has backfired on American companies.
In recent years, US politicians have clung to the misplaced belief that restricting exports of advanced goods and core technologies would slow the upgrading of China's tech industry and secure America's technological supremacy. Yet, they overestimated their leverage, while grossly underestimating the developmental resilience that China has built over decades of growth.
Today's China is no longer a passive follower or technology importer. Instead, it has grown into a robust innovation powerhouse with complete industrial chains and strong endogenous driving forces in numerous key technological sectors. Rather than stifling China's technological progress, America's escalating containment measures have only forced China to accelerate industrial upgrading and supply chain optimization.
In the meantime, while US politicians have been indulging in the illusion of building a "tech wall" through licensing restrictions, the self-inflicted damage to the US has grown increasingly impossible to ignore. Reuters reported in August 2025 that thousands of license applications by US companies to export goods and technology around the globe, including to China, were in limbo because turmoil at the agency in charge of approving them had left it nearly paralyzed.
The USCBC survey also listed license delays as the most common challenge identified by 95 percent of companies. For items bound for Chinese customers, two-thirds of companies have had licenses pending for at least three months, exceeding the US Commerce Department's statutory requirements to process applications within 90 days, and 31 percent have had licenses pending for one to two years.
As a result, American tech companies can only watch helplessly as orders that once belonged to them flow to suppliers in other countries. These licensing delays not only impose administrative costs far exceeding expectations, but also severely disrupt normal cross‑border commerce. From semiconductor components to high‑end industrial materials, and from aerospace ancillary products to cutting‑edge research instruments, countless routine trade transactions have been artificially severed. The market advantages that US firms took years to forge is being eroded by the very policies meant to protect them.
From a deeper economic perspective, the export licensing system is particularly lethal to America's innovation ecosystem. Usually, companies allocate a significant portion of their revenue to R&D and technological innovation. However, if the products resulting from these investments cannot be sold in a major market, investment returns will be affected, and the incentive for companies to continue investing in innovation will be undermined. As underscored by the USCBC survey, the export licensing regime diminishes America's ability to innovate and undermines US economic security.
In trying to contain China's industrial rise, the US has ended up undermining its own interests, laying bare the fundamental divide between two development paths. On one hand, the US attempts to fragment global industrial chains through administrative intervention, trade barriers and technological "decoupling" to sustain its dominant position. Yet, such obstructive practices only undermine the competitiveness of domestic industries and weaken America's own innovative vitality.
On the other side, China adheres to high-standard opening-up and win-win cooperation. By continuously opening its vast domestic market and providing foreign companies with a stable business environment, China has built a mutually beneficial global industrial collaboration network. China understands that genuine competitiveness comes from sustained independent innovation, sophisticated industrial supporting systems and market vitality. Precisely because China has chosen to expand openness and deepen cooperation, it has demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of external containment and constructed a globally integrated supply network.
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