Police arrested a mainland man last night for allegedly vandalizing the US Consulate General in Hong Kong, the second such incident this month as Beijing continues to lash out at foreign governments for alleged “interference” in the protests that have rocked the city for months.
HK01 reports that at about 7pm on Tuesday evening, security guards at the consulate saw a man, later identified as a 36-year-old surnamed Xie, throw black paint onto the building’s facade. The guards called the police and Xie was arrested on the spot on suspicion of criminal damage.
Xie’s motive hasn’t yet been disclosed, though China and the US have long had numerous bones of contention between them, including not only the unsubstantiated accusations of foreign meddling in Hong Kong’s political situation, but also the bruising trade war currently taking place between the two powers.
Last week, a 37-year-old man, also from the mainland, was sentenced to four weeks in jail after attempting to scrawl the words “China will prevail” on the consulate’s wall in black spray paint. He was stopped, however, before he could write the word “prevail.”
The defendant had reportedly told a police officer he believed the US was behind Hong Kong’s ongoing pro-democracy protests, saying, “I am unhappy with the Americans so I used the paint to spray the US Consulate.”
