Three days after Fu Guohao was beaten by Hong Kong protesters and tied to an airport trolley, the Chinese mainlander emerged triumphant from hospital to a small crowd of supporters.

Outside the building in a town on the edge of Hong Kong about a dozen people waited wearing red T-shirts with the message: “I support Hong Kong police, you can hit me now”.

The scenes from the airport earlier in the week showing Mr Fu being detained by angry masked demonstrators were a gift to the propaganda machine in China that now labels protesters "terrorists".

The messages on the T-shirts were spread around the country's highly restrictive internet alongside the face of Mr Fu, a reporter for a state newspaper accused by protesters of being another spy sent to infiltrate their movement.

Solidarity with Beijing is rare in Hong Kong, a city weary from more than ten weeks of running battles between riot police and a largely peaceful pro-democracy movement.