The Manchester consulate attack shows how China is flexing its muscles abroad

Staff from the Chinese consulate in Manchester try to remove a poster of Xi Jinping during the pro-democracy demonstration. Photograph: Matthew Leung/The Chaser News/AFP/Getty Images

I can’t help but imagine what would happen if I was taken to a Chinese embassy. Would I be detained in a small blackout room? Extradited to mainland China and have a forced confession on state television? Or disappeared for ever, like some of the dissidents in other embassies of autocracies?

I have to come to the understanding this week that, for Hong Kong dissidents, Britain may not be as safe as we hope.