Former UK Consulate employee tortured in mainland China. Claimed Hong Kongers detained by Chinese secret police.
“I saw a bunch of Hong Kong people getting arrested and interrogated. I heard someone speak in Cantonese saying: 'Raise your hands up - you raised the flags in the protest didn’t you?'”
This is the recollection of Simon Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen arrested in Hong Kong and sent back to mainland China. Cheng was a trade and investment officer at the British Consulate in Hong Kong. In June this year, Cheng became one of the staff that volunteered for an additional role offered by the British Consulate to collect information about the status of the Hong Kong protests. On 8 August 2019, as he returned from a business conference in Shenzhen, China, he was arrested by Chinese authorities on a high-speed rail link after it crossed the border into Hong Kong. He was sent back to Shenzhen and put on administrative detention by the Chinese police for 15 days on the charge of prostitute solicitation. Cheng was released after he was allegedly forced to make a false confession, and has since then resigned from his job. He is now seeking asylum as he fears for his own safety.
According to Cheng, people self-identified as secret services told him “there are no human rights” before starting the torture, making him hold stress positions for hours, such as squatting against a wall, and beating his vulnerable body parts such as ankles. “They wanted to know what role the UK had in the Hong Kong protests - they asked what support, money and equipment we were giving to the protesters,” said Cheng. Both Cheng and the #UK government claim his task of collecting information about the Hong Kong protests was purely to observe and not to interfere in any way.
Mainland China was supposed to honour the 'One Country, Two Systems' principle. Yet citizens of Hong Kong have allegedly been routinely detained in or even sent back to China on seemingly dubious charges. No one can be truly safe, even when you are within the borders of Hong Kong.
Full Article: John Sudworth, BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50457262
Further reading: An Enemy of the State - Simon Cheung
https://t.co/ptIXzfay7T
#OneCountryTwoSystems #Torture #SimonCheung #UKConsulate
“I saw a bunch of Hong Kong people getting arrested and interrogated. I heard someone speak in Cantonese saying: 'Raise your hands up - you raised the flags in the protest didn’t you?'”
This is the recollection of Simon Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen arrested in Hong Kong and sent back to mainland China. Cheng was a trade and investment officer at the British Consulate in Hong Kong. In June this year, Cheng became one of the staff that volunteered for an additional role offered by the British Consulate to collect information about the status of the Hong Kong protests. On 8 August 2019, as he returned from a business conference in Shenzhen, China, he was arrested by Chinese authorities on a high-speed rail link after it crossed the border into Hong Kong. He was sent back to Shenzhen and put on administrative detention by the Chinese police for 15 days on the charge of prostitute solicitation. Cheng was released after he was allegedly forced to make a false confession, and has since then resigned from his job. He is now seeking asylum as he fears for his own safety.
According to Cheng, people self-identified as secret services told him “there are no human rights” before starting the torture, making him hold stress positions for hours, such as squatting against a wall, and beating his vulnerable body parts such as ankles. “They wanted to know what role the UK had in the Hong Kong protests - they asked what support, money and equipment we were giving to the protesters,” said Cheng. Both Cheng and the #UK government claim his task of collecting information about the Hong Kong protests was purely to observe and not to interfere in any way.
Mainland China was supposed to honour the 'One Country, Two Systems' principle. Yet citizens of Hong Kong have allegedly been routinely detained in or even sent back to China on seemingly dubious charges. No one can be truly safe, even when you are within the borders of Hong Kong.
Full Article: John Sudworth, BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50457262
Further reading: An Enemy of the State - Simon Cheung
https://t.co/ptIXzfay7T
#OneCountryTwoSystems #Torture #SimonCheung #UKConsulate
BBC News
Simon Cheng: Former UK consulate worker says he was tortured in China
The man, detained in August, says he was blindfolded and beaten for his part in Hong Kong's protests.