Getting Away With Murder

In a real indication of what a nasty arrogant nationalist regime is controlling China ....

Four Chinese Consulate Thugs Destroy Democracy Posters

... they now believe that Chinese communist laws and censorship applies equally to Chinese descent people (and presumably to foreigners if they get in their way), who they don't approve of.

So armed with this sense of arrogance, entitlement and invulnerability, the staff (probably security / intelligence official under cover and spying on local Chinese descent citizens), at the Chinese consulate in Manchester UK, left the consulate grounds and forced a pro democracy man who was demonstrating on the British streets into the consulate grounds, and started to beat him up.

Police Have Limited Powers Against Diplomatic Staff

The victim of this crime, was only able to escape with the help of other demonstrators and the police (who were handicapped by diplomatic immunity rules) ... the consulate (not even a full embassy) justified this assault committed on British soil with a spokesperson for the consulate saying the protesters had "displayed an insulting portrait of China's president" ... as if that made it lawful, legal and justified.

Xi Jinping Poster That Caused Assaults

Now the only other two countries that have displayed such arrogance and blatant disregard for local laws, are the staff at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul Turkey, where Jamal Khashoggi was abducted and murdered, and by the security staff of President and Grand Poobah of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who consider that they have the right to beat up foreign citizens in countries such as the USA and Ecuador.

Will we close that consulate down and expel their staff withdrawing diplomatic status? No of course not, no more than the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, or the Turkish embassy in Washington was closed .... we tolerate these regimes at our peril, and at the risk of our civilisation. 

Letting them get away with murder in our countries is a mistake we will learn to regret.

Update: Reports by a Spanish based NGO Safeguard Defenders has uncovered a network of illegal Chinese 'police stations', operating across Europe (as part of a string of 54 "overseas police service centres" across five continents and 21 countries). These stations are used to pressure Chinese dissidents abroad in to returning home to sort out their problems. and to think about their parents back in China. Several EU states, including Ireland and the Netherlands, have already ordered China to close the police posts ... but its not been universally stopped.

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused China of actively attempting to interfere in the country's elections after Canadian intelligence identified a "clandestine network" of Beijing financially backing at least 11 candidates  in the 2019 federal elections. Once again the operation was reportedly directed from a Chinese consulate (in Toronto), in direct contravention of diplomatic rules.

Of course these are illegal activities and just confirm that China is abusing the rules of diplomatic activities developed over centuries by civilised countries and confirmed in the Vienna Convention ..... they just don't care, and like other rogue states such as Iran, or Saudi Arabia, are willing to trash international laws to get some short term advantage over their critics abroad.