London:The British government says it has still not received an adequate explanation for why one of its consulate staff in Hong Kong was detained and tortured last year. It has warned that China's silence only fuels concerns about the erosion of rights and freedoms in the territory.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that he was"shocked and appalled"by the mistreatment of Simon Cheng.
Cheng was detained over his role in the Hong Kong protest movement and was accused by the Chinese National Security Police of being a British spy.
"His treatment in Chinese detention,for more than two weeks,amounted to torture,"Raab said in a foreword to the UK'smost recent six-month report on Hong Kong,which was tabled in the Commons on Thursday,London time.
The reports are compiled as part of the UK's ongoing monitoring of the territory since the handover to China in 1997.
It came as a new global coalition of Western MPs,formed to pressure their governments into adopting co-ordinated and tougher stances on China,announced it had grown from 19 to 100 since its launch one week ago – representing 13 democratic countries,up from eight.
Liberal MPs George Christensen and Tim Wilson,as well as Senators Alex Antic,James Patterson,Eric Abetz,Claire Chandler,Amanda Stoker and Labor's Raff Ciccone and Daniel Mulino are the new Australian entrants to theInter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.
Raab's comments are the latest representing a significant sharpening of the UK's tone in recent weeks.
The reporting period covers up to December 31 – before the coronavirus pandemic and before the Chinese Communist Party proposed a new national security law for the territory in the wake of last year's unrest. That move,Britain has said,would violate the joint treaty it signed with China in 1984 which guarantees Hong Kong citizens certain freedoms and autonomy for 50 years.