LONDON –
Simon Cheng is still visibly tense as he describes his detention in China. In 2019, Cheng, a pro-democracy activist from Hong Kong and a former employee of the British consulate there, was arrested after a business trip to mainland China.
According to his account, he was interrogated and tortured for fifteen days. Beijing confirmed his detention but denied that he had been mistreated. When he was eventually released, he no longer felt safe in Hong Kong, and in early 2020 he fled to Britain and applied for asylum.
“It’s not difficult in some ways to adjust to a new life in Britain,” says 33-year-old Cheng. “But I also cannot escape the fate of my hometown.”
