An employee of Britain’s consulate in Hong Kong who went missing earlier this month is being held in China, Beijing confirmed yesterday.
The incident comes as relations between Britain and China have become strained over what Beijing calls London’s “interference” in pro-democracy protests that have wracked Hong Kong for three months.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) told a regular media briefing that the detained man had been “placed in administrative detention for 15 days as punishment” by Shenzhen police for
Photo: Reuters
“breaking a public security law.”
The employee was from Hong Kong and therefore the issue was an internal matter, Geng said.
“Let me clarify: This employee is a Hong Kong citizen, he’s not a UK citizen, which is also saying he’s a Chinese person,” Geng said.
The man, named by his family as Simon Cheng (鄭文傑), on Aug. 8 traveled to Shenzhen for a one-day business meeting. That night, Cheng was returning home via high-speed train and sent messages to his girlfriend as he was about to go through customs.
“We lost contact with him since then,” his family said on Facebook.
Geng said that Cheng had breached the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, which has broad scope aimed at “maintaining public order in society” and “safeguarding public security,” as well as making sure police and security forces act within the law.
The ongoing protests have raised fears of a Chinese crackdown in some form.
The unrest was initially triggered by a controversial bill to allow extradition to China, but has since broadened into a call for wider democratic reforms.
Beijing has repeatedly warned Britain against any “interference” in the protests, which erupted 11 weeks ago and have seen millions of people hit the streets calling for democratic reforms.
“Recently, the UK has made many erroneous remarks about Hong Kong,” Geng said. “We once again urge the British side to stop gesticulating and fanning flames on the Hong Kong issue.”
With Beijing attempting to shape the narrative of the unrest in Hong Kong, Chinese authorities have increased their inspections at the Shenzhen border, including checking the smartphones and devices of some passengers for photographs of the protests.
China promised to respect the freedoms in the territory after its handover from Britain in 1997, including freedom of speech, unfettered access to the Internet and an independent judiciary.
Friends of Cheng yesterday afternoon staged a protest outside the British consulate in Hong Kong to pressure the British government to “save Simon.”
“Hong Kong people are still fighting to oppose the extradition bill, yet something like this happened without such a bill,” organizer Max Chung (鍾建平) told reporters. “If the Beijing government doesn’t explain to the public why this happened, then it is playing with fire. This is a warning to Hong Kongers and to whoever wants to come to Hong Kong.”
Chung told the rally that “to our best understanding,” his detained friend had not been involved with the protests.
“Simon is a very good guy and smart guy... I don’t think he would do anything stupid,” he added.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues