HONG KONG — A reporter for Chinese state media was arrested after allegedly slapping a delegate at the annual conference of the UK’s governing party.



Footage posted online showed a woman with an accredited press pass being asked to leave a fringe event at the Conservative Party’s conference in Birmingham on Sunday.

The woman, identified as Kong Linlin, a reporter for China’s state-run CCTV, was attending an event organized by the UK-based Hong Kong Watch and the Conservative Party’s human rights committee.

Towards the end of the event, the woman identified as Kong accused Hong Kong Watch chair Benedict Rogers of being “anti-China,” and labelled prominent pro-democracy panelists including Martin Lee from Hong Kong’s Democratic Party and Umbrella Movement student leader Nathan Law as “traitors.”



Enoch Lieu, a volunteer, said he tried to escort Kong from the event when she was asked to leave by its chair, Conservative MP Fiona Bruce. Lieu said Kong accused him of trying to silence her, and twice slapped him.

“I said no, miss, you have to go,” Lieu claimed in a tweet. “All of a sudden, she slapped me in the face.”



Lieu said he was slapped a second time after other people at the event intervened to help escort Kong from the room. In a Facebook video shared by Hong Kong Watch on Facebook, Kong can be seen shouting at Lieu and claiming that he has no right to remove her.



“You have no right, there is no [democracy] in the UK,” shouted Kong. “I’m a journalist here. Leave me alone.”