An incendiary device exploded outside the U.S. embassy in Beijing Thursday morning, wounding the subject’s hand, Reuters reported, adding that police described the bomb as a “firework device.”
Beijing police said the suspect had injured his hand and been taken to hospital. Witnesses said they heard an explosion near the embassy and felt tremors shortly thereafter. A police SUV was damaged in the incident.
“I’d just arrived and started to queue and then heard a loud explosion about 100 meters away,” one high school student told reporters.
State-run media reported in a separate incident that Chinese police apprehended and took away a woman outside the embassy who doused herself in fuel in what was likely a self-immolation attempt. That incident happened around 11 a.m. Beijing police did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Security in China’s capital is tight, social media is heavily censored, and protests are often disbanded before they turn violent. China has been involved in a trade dispute with U.S. President Donald Trump
The U.S and China imposed tariffs on $34 billion worth of each other’s goods, with Trump threatening to impose punitive tariffs on all Chinese imports. He believes the communist country has been unfairly jacking up prices on manufactured goods.
Trump said earlier in July that he is ready to place tariffs on all $500 billion worth of Chinese exports to the U.S. “I’m not doing this for politics, I’m doing this to do the right thing for our country. We have been ripped off by China for a long time,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in a “Squawk Box” interview. (RELATED: Trump’s Ready To Hit China With Crushing Tariffs On $500 Billion Worth Of Exports)
The president imposed similar sanctions on European Union goods earlier this year. The EU ultimately agreed to key trade concessions Wednesday after Trump threatened to impose billions of dollars in tariffs on the bloc if they did not lower trade barriers.
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