What Happened to Simon Cheng?

Simon Cheng works at the British Consulate, but went missing on August 8

Hongkongers are reeling after the news yesterday of local man who had disappeared after he crossed the immigration checkpoint at the West Kowloon terminus of the high-speed railway on August 8.

It seemed things were complicated by the fact that Simon Cheng Man-kit was also working at the British consulate in Hong Kong, which led to speculation that the UK was being dragged into a diplomatic spat with China.

Only yesterday did Cheng's family and Taiwanese girlfriend reveal to the media that he had been missing for almost two weeks. The 28-year-old had been traveling to Shenzhen on business and when he arrived at the station, he texted his girlfriend, saying "Passing through [immigration]".

And then she never heard from him again.

This afternoon, the Chinese Foreign Ministry finally confirmed Cheng was being detained in Shenzhen for violating a law.

"My understanding... about this person is that Shenzhen police ordered him to serve 15 days of administrative detention for violating public security management regulations," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, without elaborating further.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang

"I also want to stress that this worker is a Hong Kong citizen -- not a British citizen -- and he is Chinese. And this is entirely an internal matter of China."

This came after the British government sought answers about Cheng, saying it was "extremely concerned by reports that a member of our team has been detained returning to Hong Kong from Shenzhen".

Cheng has worked as the trade and investment officer of Scottish Development International at the British consulate since 2017.

Perhaps because he works at the British consulate, the media were able to get a response from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, because Cheng's family had hired a mainland-based  lawyer who could not find any record of him in any detention centre in Shenzhen or Guangzhou.

The Mainland Port Area is under Chinese jurisdiction

Regardless the case is shocking, as this is exactly the scenario people were worried about regarding China having an area of jurisdiction in the West Kowloon railway station.

Under the so-called co-location arrangement, the zone beyond the Hong Kong immigration checkpoint at the railway station is a mainland port area, where China's national laws are fully applicable.

On August 9 Cheng's girlfriend and his older sister contacted the consulate about him being missing and the consulate told them to file a report to the Hong Kong police and immigration authorities.

The following day the consulate and immigration department separately confirmed to Cheng's family that he was being detained but had no further details. On August 11, a Hong Kong police investigator assigned to the case couldn't get more information either.

To say this is frightening, shocking and terrifying is an understatement. Surely this is going to stop a lot of Hong Kong people from crossing the border into the mainland if they don't need to. International coverage of Cheng's story will not only put pressure on China, but also confirm suspicions the country is opaque in handling cases of a legal nature.

After his 15 days of detention, Cheng may not necessarily be released -- his family has been told a a criminal investigation could be launched.

What did he do wrong? Can someone tell us?