- Simon Cheng says he was shackled, blindfolded, beaten during 15 days of detention
- Britain ‘outraged’ but Beijing maintains he broke the law by hiring a prostitute
Former British Consulate employee Simon Cheng, who was detained by mainland authorities for 15 days in August after visiting Shenzhen, has claimed he was tortured and pressed for information about activists in Hong Kong's anti-government protests.
The 29-year-old Hongkonger said he was now no longer in the city and in a "vulnerable position", having received little support over the past three months.
He said the consulate asked him to resign from his job in November, although sources told the Post he might have left on his own. Cheng did not reveal where he is now, but said he was seeking asylum to find a place to settle with his fiancee and get a job.
He gave details of his treatment during detention in a lengthy Facebook post on Wednesday and in an interview to the BBC, sparking a war of words between Britain and officials in China and Hong Kong.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he summoned the Chinese ambassador in London to express outrage at Cheng's alleged mistreatment.
While Cheng complained that he received scant support since August, Raab said Britain would look into allowing him and his fiancee to settle there.
Chinese foreign affairs ministry spokesman Geng Shuang insisted that this was not a diplomatic matter and rejected all remarks made by the British.
Mainland authorities have maintained that Cheng broke the law while in Shenzhen by soliciting prostitution and was detained for that.
In his statement, Cheng gives a detailed, chronological account of what happened to him from August 8, when the consulate sent him to Shenzhen for a business conference.
While there, he said, he met the parents of a mainlander who took part in the Hong Kong protests, to "bring money back for his living cost to go through the judicial process". He also went for a massage "for relaxation after work hours".
He returned to Hong Kong the same day by high-speed rail but on reaching the Kowloon terminal, he was stopped at the mainland checkpoint and put back on a train to Shenzhen.
Over the next 15 days, he was moved to different locations, kept blindfolded and shackled and was beaten during questioning, and locked up alone most of the time.
He said his interrogators, whom he believed were secret police, pressed him to reveal what he knew of the Hong Kong protests and especially if the British had a hand in instigating the unrest.
Although Cheng was a trade officer, he was assigned overtime work to research into the protests and send reports to his bosses. Some of his messages were sent from his smartphone and his interrogators demanded that he reveal its password. He refused initially.
He said he was kept buckled to a torture chair which prevented him from moving, deprived of sleep, and accused of being a British spy and secret agent. At one point, he was grabbed by the hair in an attempt to unlock his phone by facial recognition.
"I was interrogated for days and days, hours after hours," Cheng claimed.
He also said: "I was hung (handcuffed and shackled) on a steep X-Cross doing a spread-eagled pose for hours after hours. I was forced to keep my hands up, so blood cannot be pumped up my arms. It felt extremely painful."
At another point, he said: "When the secret police took me out of the detention centre, I was handcuffed, shackled, blindfolded and hooded (so it was hard to breathe). I was not allowed to wear glasses from the very beginning, so I kept feeling dizzy and suffocated."
He said he finally revealed his phone password after being tortured.
Cheng was released after signing confessions presented to him, including that he hired a prostitute.
Asked by the BBC whether he paid for sex in Shenzhen, he declined to answer. In his Facebook post, he said: "I did no harm and did nothing I regret to anyone and all the people I love and cherish."
Cheng, who worked at the consulate for about two years, said he was offered seven months' paid leave. He left Hong Kong to "a third place" for security reasons and this month, he was asked to resign.
Cheng said he was speaking up now to let people know "the flawed judicial process in mainland China".
Commenting on Cheng's statement, Raab said: "We were shocked and appalled by the mistreatment he suffered while in Chinese detention, which amounts to torture."
He said he summoned Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming and "made clear we expect the Chinese authorities to investigate and hold those responsible to account".
Geng said the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau had already given details of how Cheng violated China's public security administration laws and received 15 days of administrative detention.
"During the detention period, the public security agencies had guaranteed various legitimate rights of Cheng and Cheng also confessed to his illegal acts," he said.
He said he was not aware that Raab had summoned the ambassador, but said: "China resolutely opposes remarks of the British side on issues related to Hong Kong. We express our strong opposition over the wrong words and deeds of the British side on a series of issues concerning Hong Kong. The representation of the British side to the Chinese ambassador will not be accepted."
Hong Kong's justice secretary said on Wednesday she had no opinion on an accusation of torture made against China by a Hong Kong citizen who worked at the British consulate in the city.
Simon Cheng, who worked for the British government for almost two years, said secret police in China beat him, deprived him of sleep and shackled him in an attempt to force him to give information about activists leading pro-democracy protests.
Hong Kong Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, speaking to reporters at the Chinese embassy in London, said Simon Cheng should report the matter to the relevant Chinese authorities.
"There are many things that are often reported and sometimes it is extremely important to gather the whole facts and veracity of it before any view is to be formed," Teresa Cheng said when asked whether she was alarmed by the account of torture.
"So I prefer to hold my opinion until I have the opportunity to collect and analyse any information that I might have," she added.
The justice secretary, who sustained a wrist injury in London last week when she was pushed to the ground by people protesting against the Hong Kong government, drew a parallel between the incident and the alleged mistreatment of Simon Cheng.
"I reported my incident to police and I would encourage him to do the same with the relevant authorities in the mainland," she said, after relating the medical details of her wrist injury.
"There is usually an avenue by which these matters can be aired," she said.
Hong Kong's constitutional and mainland affairs minister Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said that under the "one country, two systems" principle, Hong Kong citizens have to observe Chinese laws when they visit the mainland.
"If a Hong Kong citizen needs help, he can provide information to us and we shall follow up with the relevant Chinese authorities," he said.
Neither the Guangdong provincial public Security Bureau nor the Shenzhen police responded to queries on Cheng's allegations.
Additional reporting by Jun Mai and Reuters
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