Beijing: President Xi Jinping has warned that any attempts to split China would result in “bodies smashed and bones ground to powder”, amid four months of anti-Beijing unrest in Hong Kong.
Xi issued the dire message during a weekend visit to Nepal, according to a foreign ministry statement released yesterday.
“Anyone who attempts to split any region from China will perish, with their bodies smashed and bones ground to powder,” Xi said, according to the ministry.
“Any external forces that support the splitting of China can only be regarded as delusional by the Chinese people,” he said during a visit to Nepal.
While the Chinese leader did not mention any region by name, his comments came as riot police and pro-democracy protesters clashed again in Hong Kong and amid tensions with self-ruled Taiwan.
There have been concerns that China could send in troops to put an end to the unrest, but Beijing has so far said it believes Hong Kong’s police force is capable of handling the protests
Another source of tension is US criticism of Beijing’s security crackdown in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where more than one million mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in internment camps.
