UK BLASTS CHINA ON PROTEST BEATING

BRITAIN SUMMONS AMBASSADOR OVER BBC MAN AFTER PM WARNS GOLDEN AGE IS OVER’

- Nicholas Cecil and David Bond

BRITAIN and China clashed today in a diplomatic bust-up over the police beating of a BBC journalist covering lockdown protests in Shanghai.

A Cabinet minister accused Beijing of not telling the truth about the arrest of Ed Lawrence. China’s ambassador to Britain was summoned to the Foreign Office to explain the incident.

The row escalated hours after Rishi Sunak said the ambition to create a “golden era” of ties between the UK and China was over, with the Government now adopting a policy of “robust pragmatism”. The spotlight was immediately thrown onto this tougher diplomatic stance by the dispute over Mr Lawrence’s treatment.

In China, the authorities were further clamping down on the protests against President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy, which includes draconian lockdown restrictions.

Demonstrators were being contacted by people identifying themselves as Beijing police officers and asking them to report to a police station with written accounts of their activities on Sunday night, when protests took place.