Beijing News reported that the Chinese Embassy in the U.K confirmed that Kong Linlin, a CCTV news reporter, who the police arrested for “suspicion of common assault” during a meeting held by the office of the London-Based NGO Hong Kong Watch and Britain’s Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, on September 30, has been released. According to a Beijing News article, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the U.K. made the following statement, “The Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission used the party’s annual meeting to hold an event in which it sided with anti-China separatist forces. China has serious concerns and is experiencing strong dissatisfaction. Our Chinese reporter was obstructed when she asked questions at the side meeting. The Embassy requested that the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop interfering with Hong Kong affairs. The Embassy in the U.K. also asked the conference organizers to apologize to the Chinese reporter.”
The article quoted another statement that the CCTV spokesperson made: “Any attempt to advocate the splitting of China is a counter-historical trend and a waste of effort. The spokesperson demanded that the U.K. take effective measures to protect the rights and interests of journalists and to ensure that such absurd incidents do not occur.”
According to a Radio Free Asia article and the embedded video, during the conference, when Benedict Rogers, Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Commission and Founder of Hong Kong Watch, was wrapping up his speech, Kong Linlin suddenly stood up and started yelling and calling Rogers a liar who wants to separate China. She also called the rest of the people spies. The organizers asked Kong to leave the conference. During the confrontation with the conference organizers, Kong slapped one student volunteer twice and insisted that she has the right to protest. The police later took Kong away.
Sources:
1. Beijing News, October 2, 2018
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2018/10/02/509028.html
2. Radio Free Asia, October 2, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/gangtai/gf1-10012018095713.html