The family of a staffer at the UK consulate in Hong Kong have rejected a "made-up" report by Chinese state media that he was detained in the mainland for visiting prostitutes.

Simon Cheng disappeared after visiting the city of Shenzhen from the semi-autonomous city on August 8, and the Foreign Office in London said both British officials and relatives have been unable to speak to him since.

The Global Times, a tabloid state-run newspaper, said he had been detained for "soliciting prostitutes", citing police in Shenzhen, which lies on the China-Hong Kong border.

But a Facebook page run by Cheng's family dismissed the report.

"This is a made-up crime of soliciting prostitution, everyone should see it's a joke," the comment said.

Beijing confirmed on Wednesday that an employee of the British consulate had been "placed in administrative detention for 15 days as punishment" by police in Shenzhen for breaking a public security law.

The foreign ministry said he was "a Hong Kong citizen, he's not a UK citizen, which is also saying he's a Chinese person".

According to the Global Times, Cheng could be detained for 15 days and fined up to 5,000 yuan ($700) for the alleged crime.

In an editorial on Friday, the tabloid said it was at Cheng's request that police did not contact his family and that "thanks to the British foreign ministry and media, which have been hyping it, the case is now fully exposed".

Cheng was in the process of returning via high-speed train on August 8 and sent messages to his girlfriend as he was about to go through customs.

He has not been seen or heard from since.

The family said it had hired a lawyer in Shenzhen who had been unable to find or speak to the detained consulate employee.

Police in Shenzhen did not reply to AFP's request for comment.

- Misleading posts -

A photo of a man wearing square, black-framed glasses and a woman in a low-cut top was circulating widely in Twitter and Facebook posts which claim it shows Cheng with a sex worker.

The misleading posts said Western media had "wantonly attacked China" and "forced" China to report the case in detail.

The posts also include two photos of Cheng, which show him wearing square, black-framed glasses -- images which first appeared in the Global Times report that first published allegations that Cheng had been detained for "soliciting prostitutes".

But the photo of the man with the woman had circulated online long before Cheng's detention, in YouTube posts and on forums about privacy concerns in China.

The incident has further strained relations between Britain and China over what Beijing calls London's "interference" in pro-democracy protests that have wracked Hong Kong for three months.

"The so-called serious concern of the British side does not hold water and we have made stern representations to the UK side on its mistaken remarks on Hong Kong-related affairs many times," said Geng Shuang on Friday.

"We urge the British side to stop making irresponsible remarks, stop butting in to Hong Kong affairs and stop interfering in China's internal affairs."

A spokesperson for the British Foreign Office said Thursday that it was continuing "to urgently seek further information about Simon's case".

China promised to respect the freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory after its handover from Britain in 1997 -- including freedom of speech, unfettered access to the internet and an independent judiciary -- but protesters say these rights are being eroded.

Chinese authorities have increased their inspections at the border since the protests, including checking the phones and devices of some passengers for photos of the demonstrations.

Beijing has faced criticism in the past for detaining foreign nationals during diplomatic spats, and for accusing dissidents or activists of sex crimes.

Pompeo says China's detention of two Canadians is 'wrong'
Ottawa (AFP) Aug 22, 2019 - The United States is working to secure the release of two Canadians held by China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday, calling their detention "arbitrary and unacceptable" after he met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Canadian officials.

The two Canadians -- former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor -- were detained in December and accused of espionage.

The detentions came nine days after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a US warrant. While no official link was made, the arrest of the two men was widely viewed as retaliation.

"Please note that our team is focused on helping those two Canadians be released," Pompeo told Trudeau. "We're working on it diligently."

"It's wrong that they are being held," he added.

Pompeo was in Ottawa to discuss trade, China and the upcoming G7 summit with Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.

He also met with Canadian business executives -- including Canada's largest agricultural exporter Richardson International, which saw its canola shipments to China blocked this year.

Later, Pompeo told a joint press conference with Freeland: "The United States stands with Canada in the face of China's arbitrary and unacceptable detention of Canadian citizens."

He noted that US President Donald Trump has raised their detention directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping and "made unambiguous America's concern about this inappropriate behaviour."

On the eve of the Pompeo visit, Trudeau vowed in a speech that he would "always defend Canadians and Canadian interests" and not "back down" in deepening diplomatic and trade disputes with China.

Beijing quickly shot back, with Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang blaming Ottawa for the row and renewing Beijing's demands that Canada immediately release Meng.

The two countries have been locked in a feud since Meng's arrest during a flight stopover in Vancouver.

The US is seeking her extradition to face fraud charges for allegedly violating Iran sanctions and lying about it to US banks -- accusations that her lawyers dispute.

Pompeo commented that China "wants to talk about these two (Meng and the Canadian pair) as if they're equivalent and morally similar, which they fundamentally are not."

"The arbitrary detention of two Canadian citizens in China is a fundamentally different matter than the Canadian decision to apply the rule of law that's consistent with the way decent nations work."

"No," America's top diplomat said when asked if Washington might use Meng as a bargaining chip in the US trade war with China.

Trump had said in an interview with Reuters last December that he might intervene in the case if it would help secure a trade deal.

Meng's lawyers have pointed to the remarks to suggest that the charges against their client are politically motivated.

"It is a legal process by the United States Department of Justice designed to bring someone who we believe we have sufficient information to bring back to the United States under an (extradition) agreement between the United States and Canada," Pompeo insisted.

"Extradition is a criminal justice matter. It is not a political matter," echoed Freeland. "The case of Ms. Meng is currently before the Canadian courts, as it ought to be."

Meng is currently out on bail in Vancouver awaiting an extradition hearing scheduled to start in January.

On Wednesday, her lawyers alleged in court documents that she was unlawfully detained and questioned by Canadian border agents at the Vancouver airport last year.

Border agents detained her under the pretense of an immigration matter and never alerted her to the US warrant for her arrest, questioning her for hours before eventually handing her over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the lawyers said.

"From the outset of the applicant's detention," the RCMP and border agents were acting on behalf of "the FBI for the purpose of obtaining and preserving evidence," the lawyers said.

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