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China President Xi Jinping Sunday warned that any attempt to divide China will end in ‘crushed bodies and shattered bones’.

President Xi Jinping issued the warning in Nepal at a meeting with the Nepalese Prime Minister. He warned: ‘Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones…’

‘And any external forces backing such attempts dividing China will be deemed by the Chinese people as pipe-dreaming!’

The warning was issued as Hong Kong demonstrators smashed up pro-Beijing businesses and barricaded the streets in another weekend of protests.

Flashmobs struck on Sunday in shopping malls in Sha Tin and Tseun Wan holding umbrellas and wearing masks in defiance of the government’s new sweep of restrictions on protests.

There were demonstrations at different neighbourhoods with some protesters blocking roads, spraying graffiti on pro-China businesses, smashing windows and erecting barricades as they unfurled American and British flags.

Hong Kong has been rocked by protests for four months. The protest which was sparked by opposition to a now-scrapped proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, has since morphed into a larger movement for democracy and police accountability.

The city enjoys unique rights under the terms of its handover to China by Britain in 1997, including freedom of expression and an independent judiciary, but many believe these are under threat from an increasingly assertive Beijing.

“We’ve seen over two million people come to the streets standing up for freedom, standing up for democracy, and standing up against the oppression of the Chinese Communist regime,” Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday while traveling in Hong Kong. “I think it is very much in the United States interests to support the people of Hong Kong. I’m here, I’m dressed in all black standing in solidarity with the protesters.”

Chinese authorities have accused the United States of orchestrating the protests, but local activists have been pleading for American support for months.

“How does it benefit your relationship with China when the only Chinese city, which is free, loses its freedoms?” Martin Lee, a former lawmaker and the founder of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, said in May, according to Washington examiner. “And if we can preserve all these things, which is the basic principle behind ‘one country, two systems,’ if we can keep all that, the chances are that one day you will be dealing with a democratically elected China. That must be in your long-term interests.”