Topline: Britain has expressed concern over media reports that an employee at its consulate in Hong Kong has been detained in mainland China after visiting Shenzhen on August 8.
• Fears were raised after Simon Cheng, 28, failed to turn up to work on August 9. He was due to return from a business meeting in Shenzhen the day before, according to Hong Kong news site HK01. On the night of his planned return, he told his girlfriend over the phone that he was on the train back, before he lost connection.
• A representative from Britain’s consulate in Hong Kong said: “We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen. We are providing support to his family and seeking further information from authorities in Guangdong and Hong Kong.”
• Cheng, a trade and investment officer who worked in the consulate's Scottish International Development department, has since been reported missing. Cheng’s girlfriend and family believe he has been detained by the Chinese authorities.
• Hong Kong Police said at a press conference on Tuesday it had not been notified by mainland officials over the detention of Cheng.
• Hong Kong’s immigration department confirmed to Reuters that it had received a request for assistance from one of Cheng’s family members, and it said it was assisting the family.

Key background: The disappearance of Simon Cheng cuts to the core of the political crisis that has gripped Hong Kong for the last three months. Millions of Hong Kongers have taken to the streets over the last 11 weeks to voice their opposition to the city government's now-suspended plan to create an extradition bill with mainland China.

Opposition and business leaders in the semi-autonomous Chinese city voiced concerns about the rule of law in China, and the use of "black jails" and the forced disappearances of dissident voices by mainland authorities.

The disappearance of Cheng, a trade official, with the British Consulate in Hong Kong follows reports police at the mainland border were checking travellers' phones for evidence of involvement in the protest movement. Chinese officials and state-media have sabre-rattled for weeks over British and U.S. politicians, including President Donald Trump, speaking out over police crackdowns over the protesters that have broadened to include calls for free elections, and protections of civil liberties guaranteed following the handover of the former British colony in 1997. </s> BEIJING (AP) — The British foreign ministry said it is “extremely concerned” about an employee of its consulate in Hong Kong who has been missing since crossing into China on a business trip.

A statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it is seeking information from Hong Kong and Guangdong province about the fate of the employee, who was detained while crossing from the Chinese city of Shenzhen into Hong Kong.

Local media reports identified him as Simon Cheng Man-kit, a trade and investment officer at the Scottish Development International section of the consulate. The reports say he attended a business event in Shenzhen on Aug. 8 but never returned to Hong Kong despite plans to do so the same day.

“We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen. We are providing support to his family and seeking further information from authorities in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong,” said the statement, which was forwarded by the British Embassy in Beijing.

It is unclear whether the man possessed a diplomatic passport, but the seizure of consular staff of any status or rank is highly unusual. Despite Beijing’s declaration of a “golden era” in Sino-British ties, relations have grown tense in recent months amid pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, a British colony for 156 years before its handover to Chinese rule in 1997.

Asked about the case at a daily briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang responded, “I’m not aware of that.”

Press officers for the Guangdong police and Ministry of Public Security could not be reached by phone. The ministry did not immediately respond to faxed questions about the case. </s> The British Foreign Office on Tuesday said it was “extremely concerned” by reports that trade and investment officer Simon Cheng Man-kit of the Hong Kong office has been detained by Communist China while traveling to the mainland for a business event. Cheng was listed as a “missing person” for over a week before there was any official confirmation he was in custody. The Chinese government has not explained why he was arrested.

Cheng, 28, disappeared 12 days ago while returning from a business trip to Shenzhen, the tech-hub mainland city closest to Hong Kong. Shenzhen is the city where China has been massing ominous police and paramilitary forces to signal Hong Kong protesters that Beijing’s patience is not without limits. The latest dark messaging from the Chinese Communist Party is that Shenzhen might replace Hong Kong as China’s business gateway to the outside world if Hong Kong proves itself to be ungovernable.

Cheng planned to return home to Hong Kong by train immediately after attending the conference in Shenzhen on August 8, as chronicled by the Hong Kong Free Press:

At 10:37pm on the day he left Hong Kong, Cheng told his Taiwanese girlfriend that he was on a high-speed rail train to return to Hong Kong, “ready to pass through the boarder [sic],” according to a screenshot. “Pray for me,” Cheng told his girlfriend in a message. The Express Rail Link has an arrangement in which border checks are not conducted in the mainland but at a joint checkpoint at the underground levels of the West Kowloon Terminus. Cheng could have been detained at the joint checkpoint, which is considered Chinese territory. Cheng did not return to work on August 9. According to his girlfriend, the British Consulate-General told Cheng’s family members to report the case to the police after they met with Nicola Barrett, a consul at the consulate. There were no arrests made at the mainland Chinese police station of the West Kowloon Terminus on August 8 and 9, an officer of the station told HK01 in a phone call. Cheng’s girlfriend said a unit at the Immigration Department, which provides assistance to Hong Kong residents outside of Hong Kong, told her on August 10 that Cheng was under administrative detention in mainland China, but the reason and location of his detention were unknown.

The West Kowloon Terminus of the Hong Kong rail station was one of the biggest controversies in the city before the attempt to pass a new extradition law cause the current protest movement to erupt. Part of the terminus was essentially classified as Chinese soil, governed by mainland law instead of Hong Kong’s special autonomous laws, for the stated purpose of making rail travel to Shenzhen easier. The idea was that travelers could pass through border security and “enter” China without leaving the rail station, rather than going through a cumbersome customs check when their train actually crossed over the Hong Kong border.

Critics said the terminus arrangement compromised Hong Kong’s autonomy and could make it easier for mainland police to arrest people from Hong Kong and drag them back to China. One reason protests against a proposed extradition bill broke out was that critics feared China would use easier extradition procedures to grab people from Hong Kong and “disappear” them into the opaque and politicized mainland judicial system.

The British Foreign Office said on Tuesday it was “seeking further information from authorities in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong” about Cheng’s whereabouts and condition.

“We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen,” the Foreign Office said.

Cheng works for the Scottish Development International department of the British consulate. The Scottish government is reportedly working with the Foreign Office on his case.

The South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that a lawyer on the Chinese mainland hired by Cheng’s family “could not find any record of him in any detention center in Shenzhen or Guangzhou.” The family has been told only that Cheng is being held under “administrative detention” rules, which nominally require Chinese authorities to launch a formal criminal investigation no later than August 23.

“At first I didn’t want his case to go public because I was worried exposure would further jeopardise him, but now I really don’t know what else I can do,” Cheng’s girlfriend, identified only by her surname “Li,” told the SCMP.

Li said the family’s encounters with the authorities were frustrating, as Cheng’s employers seemed reluctant to get involved with the case and would not help the family hire mainland legal assistance because Cheng was supposedly “off-duty” when he disappeared. Hong Kong officials refused to tell the family which arm of the mainland Chinese government arrested him.

Li told the SCMP she and Cheng did not attend any Hong Kong protests together, but she allowed for the possibility he attended one without her, or might have interacted with the protest movement online.

The BBC quoted travelers who spoke of disturbing Chinese behavior on the Hong Kong border, including intrusive security checks and searches of personal electronics for material relating to the Hong Kong protest movement. One traveler from Hong Kong said Chinese police forced her to delete a hundred photos of the protests from her phone before she was allowed to cross the border.

“My observation is that they check two people out of three. The situation is quite severe. None of my friends want to go to mainland China now,” she said, a sentiment that might grow more intense if the disappearance of Simon Cheng Man-kit blows up into a major international incident. </s> BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Britain’s foreign office said it was seeking more information about reports that a Hong Kong staff member had been detained in mainland China.

“We are concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained while returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen,” a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson in Beijing said in an emailed statement.

“We are providing support to their family and seeking further information from authorities in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong.”

Simon Cheng, an employee at the U.K. consulate in Hong Kong, did not return to work on August 9 after visiting Shenzhen the previous day, Hong Kong news website HK01 reported, citing an interview with his girlfriend.

The U.K consulate in Hong Kong did not immediately respond to a request for comment. </s> Hong Kong: Britain's Foreign Office said Tuesday it was "extremely concerned" by reports that a Hong Kong consulate employee had been detained by mainland Chinese authorities on his way back to the city.

The Hong Kong consulate refused to confirm the man's name or further details of the apparent incident.

But reports in local news outlet HK01 said the consulate employee had failed to return after travelling to Shenzhen in Guangdong province, an hour outside Hong Kong, for a one-day business meeting on August 8.

"We are extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen," a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said in a statement.

"We are providing support to his family and seeking further information from authorities in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong," it added.

The incident comes as the financial hub is facing its worst political crisis in decades.

Pro-democracy protesters have staged weeks of rallies that have often descended into violent clashes between police and protesters.

The demonstrations were triggered by a controversial extradition law but have broadened into a call for wider democratic reforms.

China had promised to respect the freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory after its handover from Britain in 1997.

Hong Kong enjoys liberties unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech, unfettered access to the internet and an independent judiciary. </s> PARIS (Reuters) - French police are investigating the disappearance of Interpol chief, Meng Hongwei, who was reported missing after traveling from France to his native China, and they have placed his wife under protection after threats, the interior ministry said on Friday.

Meng’s wife contacted police in Lyon, the French city where the international police agency is based, after not hearing from him since Sept. 25, and after receiving threats by phone and on social media, the ministry said.

A person familiar with the investigation into the disappearance said the initial working assumption of Western investigators was that Meng had antagonized Chinese authorities in some way and had been detained as a result.

“France is puzzled about the situation of Interpol’s president and concerned about the threats made to his wife,” the ministry said.

Meng’s wife, who has remained in Lyon with their children according to police sources, was receiving protection, it said. “Exchanges with Chinese authorities continue,” the ministry added.

China has not commented officially on Meng’s disappearance and there was no mention of him in official media on Saturday.

China’s Ministry of Public Security did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

There have been several cases in recent years of senior Chinese officials vanishing without explanation, only for the government to announce weeks or even months later that they have been put under investigation, often for suspected corruption.

It was not clear why Meng, 64, who was named Interpol’s president two years ago, had traveled to China.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post quoted an unnamed source as saying Meng had been taken for questioning as soon as he landed in China, but it also was not clear why.

French police are investigating what is officially termed in France a “worrying disappearance”.

Interpol, which groups 192 countries and which is usually focused on finding people who are missing or wanted, said it was aware of reports about Meng’s “alleged disappearance”.

“This is a matter for the relevant authorities in both France and China,” the agency said in a statement.

Roderic Broadhurst, a professor of criminology at Australian National University, said Meng’s disappearance would be “pretty disconcerting” for people in international bodies that work with China, and could ultimately damage China’s efforts to develop cooperative legal assistance measures with other countries.

“It is bizarre,” Broadhurst said on Saturday, adding that China was likely to “brush off” any political damage that it would cause to Beijing’s involvement in international bodies.

“It’s a price that might have to be paid, but I guess they would see that as a cost worth bearing,” Broadhurst said.

Presidents of Interpol are seconded from their national administrations and remain in their home post while representing the international policing body.

Meng is listed on the website of China’s Ministry of Public Security as a vice-minister, but lost his seat on its key Communist Party Committee in April, the South China Morning Post reported.

Meng has almost 40 years’ experience in criminal justice and policing, and has overseen matters related to legal institutions, narcotics control and counter-terrorism, according to Interpol’s website.

Interpol staff can carry special passports to help speed deployment in emergency situations but that would not have given Meng any specific rights or immunity in his home country.

When Meng was named Interpol’s president in Nov. 2016, human rights groups expressed concern that Beijing might try to leverage his position to pursue dissidents abroad. Beijing has in the past pressed countries to arrest and deport to China citizens it accuses of crimes, from corruption to terrorism.

At the time, Amnesty International called Meng’s appointment “at odds with Interpol’s mandate to work in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

Diplomats say the role of Interpol president is largely ceremonial, with day-to-day work carried out by its secretary general, Juergen Stock, and his staff. </s> French police are investigating the disappearance of Interpol chief, Meng Hongwei, who was reported missing after travelling from France to his native China, and they have placed his wife under protection after threats, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

Meng's wife contacted police in Lyon, the French city where the international police agency is based, after not hearing from him since Sept 25, and after receiving threats by phone and on social media, the ministry said.

A person familiar with the investigation into the disappearance said the initial working assumption of Western investigators was that Meng had antagonised Chinese authorities in some way and had been detained as a result.

"France is puzzled about the situation of Interpol's president and concerned about the threats made to his wife," the ministry said.

Meng's wife, who has remained in Lyon with their children according to police sources, was receiving protection, it said."Exchanges with Chinese authorities continue," the ministry added.

China has not commented officially on Meng's disappearance and there was no mention of him in official media on Saturday.

China's Ministry of Public Security did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

There have been several cases in recent years of senior Chinese officials vanishing without explanation, only for the government to announce weeks or even months later that they have been put under investigation, often for suspected corruption.

It was not clear why Meng, 64, who was named Interpol's president two years ago, had travelled to China.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted an unnamed source as saying Meng had been taken for questioning as soon as he landed in China, but it also was not clear why.

French police are investigating what is officially termed in France a "worrying disappearance".

Interpol, which groups 192 countries and which is usually focused on finding people who are missing or wanted, said it was aware of reports about Meng's "alleged disappearance".

"This is a matter for the relevant authorities in both France and China," the agency said in a statement.

Roderic Broadhurst, a professor of criminology at Australian National University, said Meng's disappearance would be "pretty disconcerting" for people in international bodies that work with China, and could ultimately damage China's efforts to develop cooperative legal assistance measures with other countries.

"It is bizarre," Broadhurst said on Saturday, adding that China was likely to "brush off" any political damage that it would cause to Beijing's involvement in international bodies.

"It's a price that might have to be paid, but I guess they would see that as a cost worth bearing," Broadhurst said.

Presidents of Interpol are seconded from their national administrations and remain in their home post while representing the international policing body.

Meng is listed on the website of China's Ministry of Public Security as a vice-minister, but lost his seat on its key Communist Party Committee in April, the South China Morning Post reported.

Meng has almost 40 years' experience in criminal justice and policing, and has overseen matters related to legal institutions, narcotics control and counter-terrorism, according to Interpol's website.

Interpol staff can carry special passports to help speed deployment in emergency situations but that would not have given Meng any specific rights or immunity in his home country.

When Meng was named Interpol's president in Nov. 2016, human rights groups expressed concern that Beijing might try to leverage his position to pursue dissidents abroad. Beijing has in the past pressed countries to arrest and deport to China citizens it accuses of crimes, from corruption to terrorism.

At the time, Amnesty International called Meng's appointment"at odds with Interpol's mandate to work in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Diplomats say the role of Interpol president is largely ceremonial, with day-to-day work carried out by its secretary general, Juergen Stock, and his staff. </s> OTTAWA — A second Canadian is missing in China after alerting foreign affairs officials that he was being questioned by Chinese authorities, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday.

The information comes mere days after the Beijing Bureau of State Security rounded up a Canadian diplomat, who is on a leave from his job, in a move that escalated an ongoing diplomatic dispute between the two countries.

Freeland told reporters Wednesday the government has been unable to make contact with the second Canadian since he raised concerns with officials. She said the government doesn’t know where the man is being detained, but has raised the case with Chinese authorities.

Freeland added that the government is in touch with the missing man’s family, but declined to say anything more about his case.

“It’s a situation that’s, perhaps, delicate,” she said in French. “And I want to respect this individual and his family.”

On Monday, China took Michael Kovrig into custody after Beijing warned Ottawa of severe consequences for its recent arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of tech giant Huawei. Meng was arrested in Canada earlier this month at the request of the United States, which is hoping to have her extradited over allegations she tried to bypass American trade sanctions on Iran and lied to U.S. banks about her actions.

A senior government official said China confirmed to Canada very early Wednesday the Beijing Bureau of State Security had detained Kovrig. Ottawa, however, doesn’t know what the allegations against him are and does not know where he is, the official said.

The Beijing News has reported that Kovrig “was suspected of engaging in activities that endanger China’s national security.”

Kovrig’s former boss in China said he would have been under the close watch of Chinese authorities years ago as he travelled the country and talked to dissidents on behalf of Canada’s government.

He took on political-reporting assignments on highly sensitive subjects, said Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador in Beijing.

Saint-Jacques said Kovrig tried to “get the pulse” of many groups, such as displaced Tibetans scattered around China and Muslim minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused by the international community — including Canada — of mass detentions.

“He went to remote locations trying to meet with people from these communities to try and understand what they were going through, in terms of the challenges they faced, protecting their cultures,” Saint-Jacques said in an interview. “So, all of this, obviously, would have attracted the attention of security people.”

The former ambassador added that Chinese authorities have extensive files on all diplomats in China, especially those, like Kovrig, who speak fluent Mandarin.

Kovrig gave up diplomatic immunity when he took an unpaid leave of absence from Global Affairs Canada in late 2016 at the end of his posting. A senior government official, briefing reporters Wednesday on condition of anonymity, said he remains a federal government employee.

Saint-Jacques said Kovrig, who served under him in China between 2014 and 2016, loved the country and chose to stay.

In February 2017, Kovrig continued reporting on some of the touchiest subjects involving China after he joined the International Crisis Group as an adviser. His work for the non-governmental organization has covered a range of subjects, including the North Korean nuclear crisis, China’s relationship with the U.S. and its expanding presence in Africa.

A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry said earlier in the day that the International Crisis Group, where Kovrig has been a Hong-Kong-based analyst, is not registered in China and alleged its activities in the country are illegal.

Because Kovrig’s group is not registered as a non-governmental organization in China, Lu Kang added that “once its staff become engaged in activities in China, it has already violated the law.”

Lu also repeated China’s demand for Meng’s immediate release.

Saint-Jacques says he has a lot of sympathy for Kovrig, whom, based on his experience observing past cases, he believes is already enduring long interrogations by Chinese authorities.

He said they typically take detainees to secret locations, where they are monitored 24 hours a day with the lights always kept on. Saint-Jacques said Kovrig will likely face sleep and food deprivation as well as interrogations at all hours.

“They try to create as much psychological pressure as possible to make you crack,” said Saint-Jacques. “This will go on until they are satisfied, until they extract a confession. We have known people who are ready to admit to anything just to get out of there.”

He added that Kovrig likely won’t be officially charged and arrested until after this process, which can take months or more.

“In the Chinese system, once you are officially charged — in 99.9 per cent of the cases you are also found guilty,” he said. “So, the odds are against you.” </s> One of China’s richest, most politically influential men has been missing for nearly two weeks after an alleged abduction from a Hong Kong hotel.

Xiao Jianhua, a self-made billionaire with political ties to the family of Chinese President Xi Jinping, was allegedly taken from the Four Seasons Hotel where he lives in Hong Kong by a group of Chinese public security guards in the early morning of Jan. 27, according to multiple news sources and those briefed on the incident.

As the incident continues to unfold, critics have called into question the issue of Beijing’s arbitrary power and tendency to meddle in Hong Kong’s political theatre.

Hong Kong’s mini-constitution bars outside police forces from operating in Hong Kong, so as it stands this abduction is illegal.

Hong Kong police later confirmed Xiao was taken to the mainland, allegedly to assist authorities with investigations, according to the South China Morning Sun.

Social media posts allegedly from Xiao that appeared following his disappearance denied he was in Mainland China, instead stating he was receiving medical attention. The posts were removed a short time later.

Charles Tang, a sophomore business major at Suffolk, is from Guangzhou, China but was born in Hong Kong. Due to his origins, he is very familiar with the controversy surrounding “mainland” China versus Hong Kong.

Guangzhou is considered to be similar to Hong Kong because it is liberal leaning so the move from Hong Kong was not very different for his lifestyle, he said.

“As of right now, I do not feel affected by the political turmoil, but many Hong Kongers do since they view the ‘mainlanders’ as impolite,” said Tang in an interview with The Suffolk Journal late Tuesday night. He also said that Hong Kongers do not appreciate people from the mainland and have animosity toward them due to the tourism in Hong Kong.

Xiao’s abduction echoes a similar incident that took place in 2015 when five booksellers were whisked to the mainland by China’s internal police force.

The official explanation for their absence was that they were illegally distributing unauthorized books on the mainland, but some believe they were detained over a planned publication of a book about the romantic life of President Xi.

One of those kidnapped was Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, who has remained in detention for 15 months since being abducted.

Tensions between Hong Kong and China continued to grow, which has led to an emerging separatist movement that has tried to take root in Hong Kong politics and gain strength over the last few turbulent years.

“I think Hong Kong should be able to decide whether or not they want independence and China is meddling too much in our business,” said Tang. He went on to talk about the recent elections of how Hong Kong citizens vote for senators that they vote in elections.

Last year, self-identified separatists won six seats in Hong Kong’s legislature. The election followed two years of China tightening its grip on political reform within the territory.

Two months after the election, China’s communist government blocked two separatists, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching, from taking seats in Hong Kong’s legislature, according to the New York Times. Both Leung and Wai-ching are members of the emerging Chinese separatist movement “Youngspiration,” that has energized a coalition of unsatisfied Chinese youth.

Formerly under British control until 1997, Hong Kong has been a territory of China even though an international treaty known as Basic Law guarantees it a “high degree of autonomy” through 2047. Hong Kong has flourished with free speech and civic culture until recently, according to the New York Times.

Chinese Parliament was able to renege seats because, legally, they are allowed to interpret Basic Law in any way they want.

The constitutional scuffle ensued when both Leung and Yau used a derogatory Chinese term in the wording of their oaths, according to the New York Times.

Due to the relationship between Hong Kong and China, separatist movements have sprung up to reaffirm Hong Kong’s independence.

The Chinese government has stated lawmakers must read their oaths “completely and solemnly,” and exactly as written to be able to be sworn in. Otherwise, the administrator can bar them for reciting the oath in an “insincere or undignified manner.”

Moreover, the Hong Kong government has rescinded a permit for Youngspiration to set up a stall in the New Year celebrations. Some perceived this as disrespectful to Hong Kong culture.

Most Chinese people on the mainland do not care for politics and what is happening with the people of Hong Kong, Tang clarified. They care more about gossip and scandals.

The decision to bar the two separatist legislators caused outrage among Hong Kong citizens and protests that were reminiscent of the 2014 “Umbrella Movement,” that lasted for nearly 80 days.

The Umbrella Movement was held in defiance of Beijing’s refusal to allow Hong Kong citizens democratic reforms. This movement is what inspired the six new separatist legislators, according to the New York Times.

“After the Umbrella Movement, China cleaned the streets so they looked better than before the protests, almost erasing it and giving them the option to only vote for senators,” said Tang. “This caused the Hong Kongers to riot and many believe this was a tactic for China to show how ridiculous Hong Kong is and that they cannot govern themselves.”

The Umbrella Movement strived to create free popular elections and pushed for the resignation of Leung Chun-ying, the pro-Beijing Hong Kong chief executive.

However, both were unsuccessful and China’s unconstitutional interference with Hong Kong remains a perceived threat.

Lack of trust in pan-democratic leaders has incubated the Chinese separatist movement, gaining enormous popularity from the youth in Hong Kong.

Leung’s level of trust from the public began to slip away when he condemned a publication for public reprimand which citizens found as a threat to their free speech.

Leung’s political future remains in jeopardy. His term ends in March and separatists are gaining popularity among the youth of Hong Kong. The next election will take place on March 26. However, many Hong Kong residents have lost hope due to the election not being a true one, according to the New York Times. A 1,200 member pro-Beijing committee will choose the list of candidates for the election. With a uniform committee, the independent political future of Hong Kong does not look bright.
The Foreign Ministry of China confirms that United Kingdom consulate in Hong Kong employee Simon Cheng, who was reported missing, is administratively detained for 15 days by Shenzhen police.