A journalist working for a Chinese state broadcaster who allegedly slapped a delegate at Britain’s Conservative Party conference during a session on Hong Kong has been charged with common assault, according to reports.
The journalist, identified as Kong Linlin, a reporter for state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), allegedly hit conference attendee Enoch Lieu after he asked her to leave the session for heckling speakers who were discussing China’s suppression of human rights in the city.
According to a report published by HKFP yesterday, Kong, 48, has been charged with common assault and will appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court on November 7.
Some of the tense exchange was captured on video circulated on social media by London-based NGO Hong Kong Watch following the conference at the end of last month.
Lieu tweeted about the incident, which began near the end of the panel — the erosion of freedom, the rule of law and autonomy in Hong Kong — at the Birmingham International Convention Centre (ICC).
He said, as the event finished, the woman — who was wearing a press pass — began to shout at Benedict Rogers, Hong Kong Watch’s chairman and a human rights campaigner who has been outspoken about the suppression of political freedom in Hong Kong, according to Lieu.
She accused him of “trying to separate China” while also saying the rest of the panel were “puppets and fake Chinese”..
Lieu said member of parliament Fiona Bruce asked her to “calm down” and, when she didn’t, he approached her and told her “she had made her point and was no longer welcome”.
“The reporter continued her shouting and whilst I was trying to escort her out, she accused me of trying to silence her. Then I said no miss you have to go. All of a sudden, she slapped me in my face,” he tweeted.
In the wake of the alleged slap, Chinese officials, however, claimed Kong had been the one mistreated and demanded an apology.
