Date
Author
Илья СЕРГЕЕВ; Хабаровск--Иркутск
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
Hysterical angle
Russian diplomats surprised by reports from Chinese TV channel
The clash between the police and Chinese workers in Irkutsk on the evening of May 11 came to the center of attention of the diplomatic departments of the two countries. On Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said that “the Chinese government pays increased attention to the incident in Irkutsk and demands that the Russian side actively investigate its circumstances.”Yesterday, the Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Khabarovsk, Fan Xinrong, who urgently flew to Irkutsk, tried to understand on the spot the causes of the skirmish. He met with the injured workers and got acquainted with the progress of the criminal case. According to Vremya Novostei, yesterday the Chinese diplomat also met with representatives of the regional police department. The Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Khabarovsk refused to comment on the situation. A Vremya Novostey source at the Chinese Embassy in Moscow referred to the fact that all specific work on the Irkutsk incident was entrusted to the Consulate General.
The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry in the Irkutsk region, Sergei Kulik, said that on Friday, May 13, his department received a representation on behalf of the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Khabarovsk. In addition, on the evening of the same day, the deputy head of the consular department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Huang Ping, urgently met with a representative of the Russian embassy in Beijing. Mr. Huang demanded that all necessary medical assistance be immediately provided to the injured Chinese citizens, that those responsible for inciting the conflict be punished, and that everything possible be done to ensure that such incidents do not recur.
The conflict between migrant workers and law enforcement officers occurred on Wednesday on the territory of the Irkutsk company Vostoksibstroy. A crew of four private security officers, driving around the territory under their jurisdiction at night, drew attention to a group of Chinese who, at the sight of a patrol car, tried to hide at the construction site. The police followed them and demanded to see documents proving their identity and the right to work in Russia. There were more than two hundred Chinese at the construction site. They refused to comply with the request of the VOHR employees, stating that checking the documents of foreign citizens is within the competence of the migration service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
According to the crew members, the Chinese began throwing stones at them and even tried to take possession of their service weapons. In response, Vokhrovites called a rapid response group, riot police and patrol units. Communication between security forces and guests from the Middle Kingdom ended in the hospitalization of twenty Chinese workers. Some suffered chest injuries and rib fractures. Four Irkutsk policemen were also seriously injured. The prosecutor's office of the Oktyabrsky district of Irkutsk opened two criminal cases the day after the collision: one under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in connection with the use of violence against government officials, the second concerns unlawful actions of police officers who are accused of exceeding official powers (Article 286). As Evgeny Chuprov, prosecutor of the Oktyabrsky district of Irkutsk, told a Vremya Novostey correspondent, both cases have now been transferred to the investigative department of the regional prosecutor's office.
Denis Artemyev, an employee of the press service of the Irkutsk Central Internal Affairs Directorate, told Vremya Novostey that the actions of the police officers were recognized as lawful based on the results of an internal audit. Currently, all enterprises where foreign citizens work are being inspected in the region. It appears that the Chinese workers involved in the clash were in Russia legally. But the police managed to bring to administrative responsibility the management of the Vostoksibstroy enterprise, which hired overly obstinate guest workers.
The offensive position of Chinese diplomacy caused a counter-reaction from the Russian foreign policy department. A statement was published on the website of the Russian Embassy in China, placing blame for the incident on both sides. Refraining from criticizing their Chinese colleagues, Russian diplomats expressed surprise at the “hysterical report of the Chinese television company Fenghuang, which during the day of May 16 one-sidedly reported on the incident, providing a microphone only to Chinese citizens.” Having received the right to broadcast in mainland China, the Hong Kong news channel Fenghuang has gained great popularity among the Chinese middle class due to its own emphasis in presenting international information, which compares favorably with the boring programs of central state channels.
In addition, a representative of the Russian Embassy in China spoke yesterday about the release in the city of Jinan of three Russian women from the Far East, who were forcibly detained and beaten for refusing to engage in prostitution. The frightened women were able to call the embassy, after which Russian diplomats turned to the public security department of Shandong province for help. Now the Russian side demands that the provincial authorities “conduct a serious investigation into this incident and bring to justice those responsible for illegally detaining and forcing the mentioned Russian citizens into prostitution.”