U.S. Senate leader: Any violent crackdown in Hong Kong would be 'completely unacceptable'

By David Brunnstrom, Jeff Mason

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks with reporters following the weekly policy luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 7, 2019. 

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warned China on Monday that any violent crackdown on protests in Hong Kong would be “completely unacceptable,” while Trump administration officials urged all sides to refrain from violence.
“The people of Hong Kong are bravely standing up to the Chinese Communist Party as Beijing tries to encroach on their autonomy and freedom,” McConnell wrote in tweet.
“Any violent crackdown would be completely unacceptable. ... The world is watching.”
Increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong have plunged the Chinese-ruled territory into its most serious crisis in decades, presenting Chinese dictator Xi Jinping with one of his biggest popular challenges and raising fears of direct intervention by Beijing.
Some Hong Kong legal experts say Chinese descriptions of some protesters’ actions as terrorism could lead to the use of extensive anti-terror laws and powers against them.
China’s People’s Armed Police have also assembled in the neighboring city of Shenzhen for exercises, the Chinese state-backed Global Times newspaper said.
On Tuesday, China’s state media said an unidentified official with the Foreign Ministry office in Hong Kong denounced the “arrogance and biases of some U.S. politicians”, adding that McConnell’s remarks sent protesters a “seriously mistaken signal”.
Donald Trump, who has been seeking a major deal to correct trade imbalances with China, drew criticism this month after he described the Hong Kong protests as “riots” and said they were a matter for China and Hong Kong to deal with as the territory was part of China.
On Monday a senior Trump administration official and a State Department spokeswoman urged all sides to refrain from violence, while stressing support for democracy.
The senior official reiterated Trump’s remark that it was a matter between Hong Kong and China, “with the understanding that ‘they’re looking for democracy and I think most people want democracy.’
“Societies are best served when diverse political views are respected and can be freely and peacefully expressed. The United States urges all sides to refrain from violence,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

CALL TO RESPECT AUTONOMY
A State Department spokeswoman repeated calls for Beijing to adhere to its commitments after its 1997 handover from British rule to allow Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. 

She said it was important for the Hong Kong government to respect freedoms of speech and assembly
“We condemn violence and urge all sides to exercise restraint, but remain staunch in our support for freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly in Hong Kong,” she said.
“The ongoing demonstrations in Hong Kong reflect the sentiment of Hongkongers and their broad concerns about the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy,” she added. 

“Freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly are core values that we share with Hong Kong; these freedoms must be vigorously protected.”
While some commentators have accused Trump of all but giving China a green light for a crackdown, Beijing has accused Washington of encouraging the protests and angrily denounced July meetings between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence and Hong Kong publisher and democracy activist Jimmy Lai.
Trump has drawn criticism even from some normally supportive media. 

On Aug. 3, the conservative Washington Examiner called his Hong Kong remarks “a bizarre regurgitation of mainland Chinese propaganda” and added: “We hope this is Trump speaking off the cuff and not him selling out Hong Kong.”

On Monday, Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton told reporters on a visit to London he had talked about Hong Kong with British officials “as part of a general discussion about China.”
He rejected Chinese allegations that a U.S. diplomat was a “black hand” in the demonstrations as “ridiculous” and said it was “incumbent on the Chinese to live up to their obligations” on Hong Kong.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier that Britain was concerned about the latest violence in Hong Kong and called for calm from all sides.
Last week, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus called China a “thuggish regime” for disclosing photographs and personal details of a U.S. diplomat who met with Hong Kong’s student leaders. 

On Friday, she said the reports had “gone from irresponsible to dangerous” and must stop.
Hong Kong’s airport canceled all flights on Monday, blaming demonstrators for the disruptions. China said the anti-government protests that have roiled the city through two summer months had begun to show “sprouts of terrorism.”

Chinese Students Bring Threat of Violence to Australian Universities

A clash with Hong Kong supporters at an anti-China protest is a dark omen of what’s to come.

By Damien Cave

A group of violent Chinese students at the University of Queensland last week, before a scuffle with protesters who supported Hong Kong activists.

BRISBANE, Australia — The Chinese nationalists disrupting pro-Hong Kong democracy rallies at the University of Queensland arrived 300 strong, with a speaker to blast China’s national anthem. They deferred to a leader in a pink shirt.
And their tactics included violence.
One video from the scene shows a student from Hong Kong being grabbed by the throat.
Another shows a philosophy student, Drew Pavlou, 20, shouting, “Hey hey, ho ho, Xi Jinping has got to go,” until a counterprotester throws his megaphone aside.
The altercations, which took place last Wednesday in the main square of a major Australian university, were broken up by the police, but experts believe it could be a dark omen of what is to come as the passions of Hong Kong protesters ripple to other countries.
A similar scuffle broke out on Tuesday at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, when three Chinese men were filmed shouting down students from Hong Kong at a rally and pushing a young woman to the ground.
For Australia in particular, the past week signals trouble after years of gliding along and growing rich off China’s growth.
Australian universities have come to depend on Chinese donors, students and organizations that are loyal to Beijing and intolerant of dissent.
More collisions with China’s muscular nationalism now seem likely.
Racist chants and insults have been traded, along with punches.
The Chinese Consulate in Brisbane praised the “spontaneous patriotic behavior” of the pro-China activists — leading the Australian defense minister to take the extraordinary step of warning foreign diplomats against attempts to suppress free speech.
Deconstructing what led to the clashes on Wednesday, through interviews, online messages and videos, reveals just how volatile, racially charged and violent any reckoning with China may become.
“It would certainly be nice if it didn’t escalate, but I remain quite concerned that the entire way this has been handled makes copycat attacks inevitable,” said Kevin Carrico, a senior lecturer in Chinese Studies at Monash University in Melbourne.
“It’s quite worrying.”

New activists and new causes
The protest began with two students: Jack Yiu, 21, a quiet psychology major from Hong Kong, and Mr. Pavlou, a chatty grandson of Greek immigrants from Brisbane.
Both new to activism, they didn’t know each other until a few weeks ago.
Until recently, Mr. Yiu had led the university’s Hong Kong Student Association, holding benign activities like welcome dinners.
Mr. Pavlou was known on campus for starting a popular Facebook group for intellectual debate.
But recent events involving China, they said, forced them to act.
Mr. Yiu said he had friends in Hong Kong marching for democracy and against a bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.
Mr. Pavlou said his own outrage was prompted by reading about Xinjiang, a region of China where the government has pushed minority Muslims into re-education camps.
“It’s cultural genocide,” Mr. Pavlou said.
Adding to his anger, he discovered his own university had cultivated close ties with Chinese officials.
While the University of Queensland is one of several universities with a Confucius Institute — officially a program to promote Chinese language and culture — the vice chancellor, Peter Hoj, has made more of that relationship than his peers have.
The institute at the university plays a broader role, emphasizing collaboration with China in science, engineering and technology.
Until late last year, Mr. Hoj was an unpaid consultant for the Confucius Institute headquarters.
This month, he granted a visiting professorship to the Chinese consul general in Brisbane, Xu Jie, bringing a Communist Party official into university life at a time when the United States, Canada and several European countries have cut ties.
“It’s part of this China illiteracy, which is quite prevalent in Australia,” said Louisa Lim, a professor at the University of Melbourne and the author of “The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited.”
“In many cases,” she said, “the allure of Chinese investment and large numbers of Chinese students has been so overwhelming that educational institutions have just thrown their arms wide open without doing their due diligence.”

The University of Queensland's vice chancellor, Peter Hoj, right, with Xu Jie, the Chinese consul general in Brisbane, Australia, in a photo released by the Chinese Consulate this month.

In a statement online, the University of Queensland said that the consul general would not be teaching and was one of 260 titleholders appointed in recent years.
But for Mr. Pavlou, who is majoring primarily in philosophy, his university’s warm welcome has legitimized a culture of disinformation and censorship. 
He said his anger crystallized after a student Facebook group, called StalkerSpace, filled up with pro-China statements around the 30th anniversary of the TiananmenSquare massacre in June.
“I saw all these people denying things that happened or stating the official government line on it, and like to me, that was really disgusting and horrifying,” Mr. Pavlou said.
A recent poll of Australians’ views on foreign affairs, by the Lowy Institute, found that many Australians were experiencing a similar shift: Only 32 percent of respondents said they trust China either “a great deal” or “somewhat” to act responsibly, a 20-point fall from 2018.
Mr. Pavlou said the recent protests in Hong Kong were an inspiration.
He found Mr. Yiu through other activists, and they agreed to back-to-back rallies on July 24: The Hong Kong students would start at 10 a.m.; Mr. Pavlou and his group, broadening the focus to the university’s China ties, would start at noon.
Mr. Pavlou posted a notice of the event on Facebook.
That’s when the trouble started.

Counterprotesters emerge
“Yo bro where u from? Australia?” said the Facebook message from an account with the name Frank Wang.
“If so u better want to stay away from political problem.”
“Cancel the event,” the message continued.
“If u keep doing this, uv gonna face millions of people on your opposite side.”
Other messages were more aggressive.
Mixing Chinese and English, some people called Mr. Pavlou a white pig, using a pig emoji.
One comment in Chinese said: “When will you die.”

A threatening message that Drew Pavlou received on Facebook.

Mr. Pavlou was drawn into trading insults with some of them.
“It was out of fear and anger,” he said.
“It was silly. I regret it.”
Nonetheless, he carried on.
The first protest was uneventful.
A wall filled up with sticky notes of support, mirroring those in Hong Kong.
But by the time Mr. Pavlou and a few others started their protest, a crowd had gathered.
Several people there estimated that about 300 people — appearing to be a mix of Chinese students and nonstudents — appeared suddenly.
Within minutes, someone had grabbed Mr. Pavlou’s megaphone, prompting him to jump up and push back.
Security guards intervened, but the leader of the counterprotesters demanded an apology on China’s behalf.
“We tried to talk to them,” Mr. Yiu said.
“On the megaphone, I told them, we’re just fighting for Hong Kong democracy, not independence.”
By 2:15 p.m., it had grown tense.
Mr. Pavlou, who had continued the protest inside the Confucius Institute’s offices, re-emerged to see 50 or so Hong Kong students surrounded.
Priya De, 22, a leader with the socialist group that connected Mr. Yiu and Mr. Pavlou, said she heard white Australians shouting “Go back to China” at the Chinese students, and “Deport them, deport them.”
A video shot by a Hong Kong student showed David Chui, 23, a business student from Hong Kong, being grabbed by the throat and thrown to the ground.
Christy Leung, 21, another Hong Kong student, said a sign was torn from her hands and her clothing ripped.
She and Mr. Chui went to the police to press charges.
They were told there was nothing they could do.
“I don’t know how to be hopeful,” Ms. Leung said.
“People told me to report it and I did, but it didn’t work.”

The aftermath
Mr. Pavlou’s group is planning another protest this week.
The university said that it opened an investigation into the clash, and it issued a statement defending free speech but proposing that the demonstration be held in a more remote area of campus.
“It’s simply a way to starve the protest of visibility,” Mr. Pavlou said.
Some students would rather see it canceled.
A half-dozen students from mainland China interviewed around campus on Tuesday called any demonstration against Chinese influence unnecessary and useless.
Some activists on the left, noting that the Hong Kong Student Association is not involved, said they worried that any protest led by Australians who were not from Hong Kong or mainland China would only contribute to anti-Chinese racism.
But for Mr. Pavlou, Mr. Yiu, and many others, there is no turning back.
A group of Tibetan students has aligned with Mr. Pavlou’s group, calling for the university to shut down its Confucius Institute.
Mr. Yiu and his fellow Hong Kong students are planning more rallies, coordinating with groups all over Australia.
“People in Hong Kong are risking their lives,” Ms. Leung said.
“The threats we faced last week are nothing compared to them. We have to stand up. With them.”

Hong Kong independence

Hong Kong democracy camp kicks off 2019 with protests, braces for confrontational year

AFP-JIJI

A pro-independence supporter raises an umbrella with British flags as she takes part in an annual New Year's Day march in Hong Kong Tuesday.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong’s embattled democracy advocates kicked off 2019 with a large street rally on Tuesday, lamenting what they said had been a grim year for freedoms and steeling themselves for fresh battles with Beijing.
A thousands-strong crowd — including independence activists — protested over disappearing political freedoms, rising inequality and the local government’s coziness with big business and Beijing.
Semi-autonomous Hong Kong currently enjoys liberties unseen on the mainland including freedom of expression and the press under a deal struck with Britain before the 1997 handover.
But concern is growing that those rights are being eroded by an increasingly assertive China ruled by Xi Jinping.
Last year city authorities made a series of unprecedented moves that caused alarm among activists and prompted rare criticism from Western governments.
In September a pro-independence political party was banned under an obscure national security law designed to target triad gangs.
Soon after a Financial Times journalist who chaired a talk with that party’s leader at a press club found himself effectively expelled after officials refused to renew his visa.
Authorities also continued to bar political candidates from standing for local elections if they held pro-independence views.
“We have experienced a lot in 2018 — society, politics and people’s livelihood have all regressed. I can’t see hope in 2019,” protester Kwan Chun-pong, a 47-year-old production line manager, told AFP.
The majority of Hong Kong’s democracy advocates want people to have a greater say in how their city is run, such as the ability to directly elect their leader.
Mass pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014 blockaded parts of the city for 79 days but failed to win any meaningful concessions.
A group of independence activists emerged from the failure of the 2014 protests, rattling local and mainland authorities.
Independence activists — some of them masked — attended Tuesday’s rally, followed by police officers with video cameras.
“We are still coming out today because we still love this place, we want it to change, we want the next generation to feel proud of Hong Kong’s identity,” activist Wayne Chan shouted through a loud-hailer.
The Hong Kong government rejects the suggestion that rights are slipping and says campaigning for independence contravenes the city’s mini-constitution.
The Civil Human Rights Front, which organized Tuesday’s march, does not support independence but argues the city’s free speech laws should allow others to campaign for it.
Activists face new challenges in 2019 with the government hoping to table new national security legislation and laws that would ban disrespecting China’s national anthem.
A number of 2014 protest leaders will also find out in April whether a court will jail them after they were prosecuted under a slew of little-used public order offenses.

China's expansionism fuels protests in Vietnam

Popular opinion has concluded that China will be the main beneficiary of pending economic policy in Vietnam, triggering two weeks of protests. The proposed economic zones will enable Chinese companies to take over the coast with little regard for the environment or fishermen. 

By Martin Petty

Protests by thousands of people in cities across Vietnam are showing just how easy it is to unite public opinion and mobilize dissent when an issue has one key ingredient: China.
The demonstrations, which are technically illegal, sprung up for a second consecutive week on Sunday, stoked by fears that proposed coastal economic zones for foreigners would be beachheads for an invasion of Chinese businesses.
The proposal makes no mention of China. 

But Vietnamese minds were already made up, with popular Facebook posts reinforcing deep-rooted suspicion that Chinese interests are influencing state policy.
Central to the issue is a combustible mix of generations of anger over Chinese bullying, and a lack of faith in Vietnam's ruling communist party to do anything about it.
"The government underestimated the amount of anti-China sentiment in the country," said Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"There's a constant undertone among many in Vietnam that the government isn't doing enough to protect the country's sovereignty against China," Mr. Hiebert added.
Social media such as Facebook, used by half of Vietnam's 90 million people, makes such fervor easy to stoke and hard to contain.
After protests spanned cities nationwide, the National Assembly last week postponed its vote on the economic zones until October.
Security was tightened on Sunday to prevent protests in major cities, but thousands still gathered in central Ha Tinh province, many with signs saying "No leasing land to Chinese communists for even one day."
Tensions are likely to persist as long as China pushes its Belt and Road initiative to advance its overseas business, and takes stronger action to fortify its claims over almost the entire South China Sea.
China has been accelerating construction and militarisation in the Spratly and Paracel islands claimed by Vietnam, and in March pressured Hanoi to suspend some major offshore oil drilling for the second time in the space of a year.
The Vietnamese government's resistance to Chinese pressure has been very limited.
The communist party top brass rarely acknowledges anti-China sentiment even exists in Vietnam. 

On Friday, house speaker Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan skirted the issue, saying the legislature "appreciates the people's patriotism and their profound concerns about important issues."
Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong weighed in on Sunday to reassure the public about the economic zones, which have 99-year leases, but also made no specific mention of China.
The June 10 protests were in large part peaceful, but turned violent in central Binh Thuan province, where vehicles were set ablaze and angry mobs hurled rocks and charged at riot police.
Tran Vu Hai, a prominent lawyer, said the anger had been festering for years in Binh Thuan, where China is blamed for assaulting fishermen, polluting the land with a Chinese-built power plant, and for deforestation to mine minerals exported primarily to China.
Hai said people were venting fury not only at China, but at a local government, which is perceived as being corrupt and enslaved by destructive Chinese commercial interests.
"They don't investigate why people are irritated and they don't solve the people's problems," he said. "The trust in the authority in that area has already been lost."
The turnout and coordination of protests is now emboldening ordinary Vietnamese, but also complicating the party's difficult balancing act of tolerating some dissent while keeping it under control.
That risks angering a vital trade partner that can hold Vietnam's economy hostage.
The protests are being taken seriously by China; its diplomatic missions in Vietnam held meetings last week with Chinese business groups, local government and local media.
In one of several postings on the embassy's website, it said charge d'affaires Yin Haihong "demanded" that Vietnamese authorities protect Chinese businesses and citizens.
Ms. Yin said the embassy had been informed by the Vietnamese authorities that people with "ulterior motives" had "deliberately misrepresented the situation and linked it to China."
The recent rallies follow similar protests in 2014 after China's deployment of an oil rig off central Vietnam, and months of demonstrations in 2016 over an environmental disaster at a steel plant run by Taiwan's Formosa Plastics.
Responding to questions from Reuters, Vietnam foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang made no mention of China but said "extremists" had "incited illegal gatherings." 

Lawmakers say it is time to revisit a long-delayed law to regulate demonstrations. 

The constitution allows freedom of assembly, but protests are often broken up by police and participants held for "causing public disorder."

Others say it's time to listen more to public opinion.

American Is Detained After Joining Anti-China Protest in Vietnam

By Austin Ramzy
Protesters in Saigon, Vietnam, on Sunday held banners denouncing a proposal to create special economic zones favorable to China.

HONG KONG — An American citizen was among dozens of people arrested in Vietnam this week during protests against proposed special economic zones that have raised fears of Chinese encroachment.
The American, Will Nguyen, was visiting Saigon ahead of his graduation this summer from a master’s program at the University of Singapore, according to a statement from his family and friends.
Mr. Nguyen, 32, a Houston native who graduated from Yale, took part in protests on Sunday. 

He was “beaten over the head and dragged into the back of a police truck,” after the authorities moved to quash the demonstrations that day, according to the statement.
A video from the protests shows Mr. Nguyen, with blood smeared across his face, being dragged by a group of men. 

He is later shown standing in the bed of a pickup truck topped with emergency lights.
He was taken to a police station, but his current whereabouts and physical condition are not known, the statement said.
Mr. Nguyen’s family fled South Vietnam after the war that led to its collapse, he wrote in a recent piece for the website New Naratif that discussed the conflict and the country’s history of divisions between North and South.
“He is a proud Vietnamese-American, and passionate about his studies, specifically Southeast Asian studies, in which he majored,” his sister, Victoria Nguyen, said by email.
Pope Thrower, spokesman for the United States Embassy in Hanoi, said the embassy was “aware of media reports that a U.S. citizen was arrested in Vietnam.”
Will Nguyen, 32, of Houston, has been studying at the University of Singapore.

“When a U.S. citizen is detained overseas, the U.S. Department of State works to provide all appropriate consular assistance,” he added. 

“Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”
From Saigon, Mr. Nguyen posted a series of tweets documenting the protests on Sunday, with crowds of people marching down city streets.
“I can’t stress how enormous of an achievement this is for the #Vietnamese people,” he wrote. 

“The people are exercising their civic duty to protest injustice.”
One image he posted shows a protester who was struck by police officers lying on the street while another person helps him. 

Another shows a protester holding a sign that reads, “No Chinese Land Lease Even 1 Day.”

Mr. Nguyen’s family has not been able to reach him, but his hosts at an Airbnb rental did reportedly speak with him shortly after his detention. 

Police officers showed up at the apartment two days later to confiscate his laptop, passport, credit cards and a change of clothes, his family said.
In addition to the special economic zones, protesters said they were concerned about a proposed cybersecurity law. 

The state-controlled news media in Vietnam reported that 102 people were arrested Sunday in the southeastern province of Binh Thuan, where thousands of protesters blocked a highway and later set fire to public buildings. 

Protests were also reported in Hanoi, the capital.
The proposed special economic zones would give leases of up to 99 years to foreign investors in three areas that would have fewer administrative restrictions than the rest of the country. 

The proposal has stirred fear that it would undermine national security by giving China control over parts of Vietnamese territory.
Vietnam and China have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, and Chinese efforts to extend control have set off protests in Vietnam. 

In 2014, China moved an offshore drilling rig into waters that Vietnam considers part of its exclusive economic zone, which prompted large demonstrations and efforts by Vietnam to force the rig to move.
The two countries fought a brief but bloody border war in 1979, when China invaded Vietnam in an attempt to punish its neighbor for toppling the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Free Tibet

Tibet row halts China U20 football team's German tour
BBC News

A group of spectators unfurled Tibetan flags during last Saturday's game in Mainz

A football tour of Germany by the Chinese U20 team has been suspended because of a political row over Tibet.
The team briefly left the pitch during a game in Mainz last week when Tibetan flags were displayed by spectators.
Three matches planned for the remainder of the year have been halted because fans planned further Tibetan protests.
Tibet is invaded and occupied by China.

Beijing reacts angrily to any suggestions that the Himalayan territory should be independent.

China and the Tibetans
"We believe this adjournment is essential in order to give us the time needed to discuss the situation calmly and openly and find a reasonable solution," Ronny Zimmermann, Vice-President of the German Football Association (DFB), was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
He said the DFB and the Chinese Football Association (CFA) "will try to work out a way of relaunching the project again quickly".
However, Mr Zimmerman earlier stressed that Germany "cannot ban the protests, there is the right to freedom of expression here and certain rules apply".

Chinese players (in red) only agreed to resume the match when Tibetan flags were removed by German police.

The postponed games include Saturday's match in Frankfurt.
China sent in thousands of troops to enforce its claim on Tibet in 1950.
Some areas became the Tibetan Autonomous Region and others were incorporated into neighbouring Chinese provinces.
In 1959, after a failed anti-Chinese uprising, the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet and set up a government in exile in India.
Most of Tibet's monasteries were destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s during China's Cultural Revolution.
Thousands of Tibetans have been killed during periods of repression and martial law.
Under international pressure, China eased its grip on Tibet in the 1980s, introducing "Open Door" reforms and boosting investment.

Free Tibet

Tibet flag mars China’s U20 debut in Germany

By Neil Connor

A Chinese agent attempts to tear away a Tibetian flag which was raised in protest of China's politics regarding Tibet at the match between TSV Schott Mainz and China's U20 team at the regional sports facility in Mainz, Germany.

Mainz, Germany -- China’s Under-20s football team stormed off the pitch during a match in Germany after demonstrators unfurled Tibetan flags.
The team – which is coached by former Manchester City defender Sun Jihai - only agreed to continue playing in the televised match against TSV Schott Mainz after the protesters took down the flags.
The incident left football chiefs in China and Germany red-faced as they seek to salvage a series of matches aimed at preparing China’s young footballers for the 2020 Olympics in Japan.
The TSV Schott Mainz game was the first of 16 friendlies the young side is to play against lower clubs in Germany until May -- with the next game against FSV Frankfurt on Saturday.
Ronny Zimmermann, vice-president of the German Football Association (DFB), which has organised the matches, said: "We cannot ban the protests, there is the right to freedom of expression here and certain rules apply.
"However, we also want to be good hosts and as a result we are not happy with this incident.”
Sun, who was signed for Man City for £2 million in 2002 and was the first Chinese player to score a Premier League goal, sought to deflect attention from the walkout back towards the football.
"The team came to Germany to improve their football and to gain experience," he said.

Protesters hold the Tibetan flag ahead the friendly football match TSV Schott Mainz vs China's Under-20 team on November 18, 2017.

The German FA is seeking to avoid a similar embarrassing situation during the remaining games and will be holding talks with the Chinese delegation .
Three teams in Germany’s fourth-tier Regionalliga Suedwest league have refused to face the Chinese after their fans protested, but the other 16 clubs will each be paid 15,000 euros (£13,300) for the matches, reports say.
German media said the game was delayed for 25 minutes after the Chinese walked off.
The team eventually returned to the pitch after the flags were removed by the protestors, but the Chinese lost the game 3-0.
Rights groups say Tibetans chafe under China’s oppressive rule.

Vietnam police halt anti-China protest over islands

Reuters

People take part in an anti-China protest to mark the 43th anniversary of the China's occupation of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea in Hanoi, Vietnam January 19, 2017. 

Police in Vietnam's capital stopped an anti-China protest within minutes on Thursday at a ceremony to commemorate a clash between the two countries in the South China Sea more than four decades ago.
Vietnam and China have a longstanding dispute over the South China Sea, nearly all of which is claimed by China. 

Four other countries have claims in the sea, through which an estimated $5 trillion in trade passes each year.
The protest in Hanoi started after a peaceful commemoration for soldiers of what was then South Vietnam who were killed in 1974, when China seized the Paracel islands, which it still holds.
Police dragged about 20 protesters on to a bus after they ignored a warning to disperse and began marching with banners and chanting "Demolish China's Invasion" and other slogans.
The government and police made no comment and state-controlled media did not report the protest.
Tension between the two communist countries peaked most recently in 2014, when China moved an oil rig into disputed waters and protests broke out across Vietnam.
Relations have since improved, although a quiet military buildup continues in the region.
China and Vietnam last week pledged to manage their differences and safeguard peace in the South China Sea during a visit to Beijing by Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong.
The potential for the busy waterway to become a global flashpoint was highlighted last week when the nominee for U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, told a Senate hearing that China should be denied access to islands it has built there.