(SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping warned on Sunday that independence advocates anywhere in China would be crushed, using tough language that is being seen as aimed at trouble spots in the country from Tibet and Xinjiang to Hong Kong.
“Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones. And any external forces backing such attempts at dividing China will be deemed by the Chinese people as pipe-dreaming,” he was quoted by state media as telling Nepal’s leader during a visit to the Himalayan nation.
While the immediate context would have been the Tibet issue, in light of the Nepal government’s crackdown on Tibetan independence activists protesting against Xi’s visit, China-watchers also saw it as a wider warning that applied to Hong Kong as well after more than four months of civil unrest
and street violence.
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