An employee of UK consulate in Hong Kong has been detained in Chinese border city of Shenzhen for ‘violating the law’, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Wednesday.
Simon Cheng, 28, was returning from a trip in Shenzhen to his native Hong Kong on 8 August when his girlfriend, Li, stopped receiving communications from him.
A spokesman for the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen … We are providing support to his family and seeking further information from authorities in Guangdong province and Hong Kong.”
Li said Cheng had messaged her just before he went silent. “Ready to pass through the border … pray for me,” he had written.
Li said Hong Kong immigration authorities had told her Cheng had been placed under “administrative detention” in mainland China in an unknown location and for unknown reasons.
The man had ‘violated/ regulations on “Punishments in Public Order and Security Administration,” the spokesman in Beijing said, without giving further details.
