BRITS USED TO REFUSE TO KOWTOW TO CHINA: UK offers pathetic response to Chinese diplomats’ attack, sending bad signal for US special relationship. “The British government showed alarming deference to China on Wednesday when it absurdly claimed to have shown strength as Beijing withdrew diplomats involved in an attack on pro-democracy protesters. The October attack occurred outside and within China’s Consulate in the English city of Manchester. It was serious, involving one protester being dragged into the consulate grounds and beaten. The conduct of China’s diplomats represented an outrageous breach of both diplomatic convention and English law. And its Manchester Consul-General Zheng Xiyuan was directly involved. In response, British police requested that China waive diplomatic immunity for the officials involved so that they could be interviewed. China refused. But rather than immediately expelling the diplomats in response, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has since sat idle.”