UK Hong Kong embassy staffer detained in China
The government has said it is very worried by a staff member at the UK’s Hong Kong consulate who has not returned to work since a trip to mainland China nearly two weeks ago.
Simon Cheng failed to report back to the office on 9 August, a day after visiting Shenzhen, according to local reports.
Read more: Twitter and Facebook shut down network of Hong Kong misinformation accounts linked to Chinese state
The city, which is an autonomous region of China, has been gripped by anti-government protests for around two months.
The mainland has been stepping up pressure on Hong Kong, with shows of military force on the other side of the border.
“We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen,” said a foreign office spokesperson.
“As soon as we became aware, we raised the issue with the authorities in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong and have done so regularly since. We have also raised with the Chinese Embassy in the UK and with the authorities in Beijing.
“We are also in regular contact with his family and providing them with support.”
Hong Kong became a British colony after the opium wars. It was handed back to the Chinese in 1997.
But voices have been raised against Beijing’s moves to increase its involvement in the territory, which is meant to have strong autonomy from the mainland.
At the weekend an estimated 1.7m people protested against he government, braving the torrential rain and potential police retribution.
However protests remained peaceful.
Read more: Hong Kong protests: Teachers march against police brutality
Yesterday Twitter and Facebook said they had taken down accounts that were part of a state-backed campaign to undermine Hong Kong’s protesters.
The protests have also claimed the scalp of Cathay Pacific’s chief executive, who stepped down last Friday after staff took part in the demonstrations.