Pro-Beijing student in Boston arrested after threatening democracy activist
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Federal prosecutors said the student at Berklee College of Music in Boston threatened to chop off an activist's hands.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM GOOGLE MAPS
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BOSTON – A Chinese student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston who stalked and harassed a pro-democracy activist has been arrested, US prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors in Boston said Wu Xiaolei, 25, threatened, through the online messaging service WeChat, to chop off the activist’s hands if the activist continued posting “reactionary posters”.
Wu was arrested on Wednesday and released later in the day.
Berklee, a private music college, said in a statement Wu’s behaviour was “troubling.”
The activist, a permanent resident from China who has family there, posted on Oct 22 a photo on Instagram of a flier on a window that said, “Stand with Chinese People”, “We Want Freedom”, and “We Want Democracy”.
Prosecutors said Wu, through a Berklee-focused WeChat group whose 300-plus members included the activist, demanded that any fliers be torn down. He also said he was reporting the activist to the public security agency in China.
“I already called the tip-off line in the country. The public security agency will go greet your family,” Wu wrote, according to a criminal complaint. Prosecutors said they believed Wu was referring to either the Ministry of Public Security or the Ministry of State Security in China, “both of which investigate political dissidents, including those who voice support for democracy”.
They said Wu, in a later WeChat post, asked for help determining where the unnamed civic activist lived.
In an Oct 24 e-mail, he told the activist to expect to be arrested upon returning to China, and that he believed the individual’s family members would receive a “political review” from the Chinese government.
“You should wash dishes for the capitalist dogs,” Wu wrote.
Chinese officials in London beating are out
In London, meanwhile, China removed six officials from Britain who police wanted to question over the treatment of a man who said he was kicked and punched while protesting outside the Chinese consulate
Mr Cleverly welcomed the removal of the officials, including the consul general in Manchester, after the minister raised British concern over the incident with Chinese diplomats.
Police had been investigating the alleged assault on a protester who was beaten by several men after being dragged inside the grounds of the consulate in Manchester, north-west England, during a demonstration against President Xi Jinping.
A police officer trying to break up a scuffle in October outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester between a protester (centre) and Chinese consulate staff.
PHOTO: AFP
Mr Cleverly previously said the incident was unacceptable, and summoned a senior Chinese diplomat to raise Britain’s concern in October.
On Wednesday, Mr Cleverly told broadcasters that police requested six Chinese officials waive diplomatic immunity so they could be questioned, and the embassy had been informed.
“We set a deadline which expired today, making it clear that we expected them to take action. In response to our request, the Chinese government have now removed from the UK those officials, including the Consul General himself,” Mr Cleverly said.
“This demonstrates that our adherence to the rule of law, the seriousness with which we take (this) instance, has had an effect... it is right that the Chinese government have now removed these officials from the UK.”
The October protest took place on the first day of the twice-a-decade congress of China’s ruling Communist Party in Beijing at which Mr Xi won a third leadership term. REUTERS
