An employee of the British consulate in Hong Kong who has been missing for almost two weeks has been detained in mainland China, the country's foreign ministry confirmed Wednesday. Simon Cheng, a 28-year-old who works as a trade and investment officer for the British Consulate General Hong Kong, has been put in administrative detention for 15 days, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang said Wednesday.
"I want to be clear: This employee is a Hong Kong citizen, not a UK citizen. So he is Chinese and this is a purely internal Chinese affair," Geng said.
Cheng was detained by the Shenzhen police for violating China's Security Administration Punishment Law, which covers a range of offenses deemed too minor to be crimes. The law is often used as a preliminary measure that allows police to investigate a suspect before deciding whether to prosecute.
"I want to be clear: This employee is a Hong Kong citizen, not a UK citizen. So he is Chinese and this is a purely internal Chinese affair," Geng said.
Cheng was detained by the Shenzhen police for violating China's Security Administration Punishment Law, which covers a range of offenses deemed too minor to be crimes. The law is often used as a preliminary measure that allows police to investigate a suspect before deciding whether to prosecute.
