to a church and appearing in a photo—op near the white house was a mistake. mark milley, the chairman of thejoint chiefs of staff, said the event created a perception of the military being involved in domestic politics. us stock markets have fallen sharply as investors became less optimistic about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the american economy. the dow jones index closed down by almost 7%. losses in other indices were almost as great. stocks suffered their worst day since march. another of europe's biggest football leagues, spain's la liga, has restarted three months after being suspended because of coronavirus. matches are being played behind closed doors but tv viewers can watch it with computer—generated spectators. now on bbc news, hardtalk.

welcome to hardtalk. i am stephen sackur. a year ago, massive pro—democracy demonstrations in hong kong seriously rattled the chinese government. a little later in the summer of 2019, my guest today, simon cheng, who was an employee of the uk consulate in hong kong, was arrested by the chinese authorities. he said he was then interrogated and tortured. now, mr cheng is here, in london, seeking political asylum. the chinese government is about to impose new, national security laws in hong kong. so, will anything stop the chinese government imposing its will and its system in hong kong?

simon cheng, welcome to hardtalk. nice to meet you, stephen. you have been through a truly extraordinary year. one year ago, you were living a normal life in hong kong. today, we sit together in london, your status is uncertain. what is your current situation here in the uk? well, i am now come to london using the working holiday visa — that is the tier 5 youth mobility scheme, that is a de facto holiday visa — and now, i'm applying for political asylum from the home office and i am waiting for the result and i'm gonna have a result by latejune. you, in essence, you are a political exile, aren't you? yeah, yeah, you can say that. i just wonder now that you look back on everything that's happened, do you feel that the

united kingdom government — which, of course, was your employer, you were working for the consulate in hong kong — do you feel that they failed in a duty of care to you? well, i would say that at least apply political asylum. i would like to wait and see whether they will grant me the political asylum. if they do, then i think that is good enough for me. at least i can have a sanctuary for me to live here and stay here. a sanctuary? yes. that is what you need, is it? yes. because you feel that events a year ago, just under a year ago, when you travelled on a business mission for the uk government to shenzhen, in china, what they ended up with you facing a very real and continued threat, in your view, from the chinese government? yes, exactly. i was on a business trip for my department within the british consulate in hong kong, and when i went back

to shenzhen and then finished the trip and went back to the hong kong west kowloon station, the high—speed railway station, i was stalked and delivered back to shenzhen, where i experienced torture and political interrogation by the secret police — the state security police. why do you think the chinese authorities detained you — and we will discuss the treatment of you in a second — but why did they detain you? first, i think it was because i wanted to collect information that i was on the frontline in protests in the midst of the anti—extradition bill protests in hong kong, and also i worked for the british consulate and i had been instructed to collect information about the protests. so that is the way they wanted to get the information and also, they are wanting to blame me and also to prove, so—called proof, that that the uk instigated the protest. but i am already a little

puzzled and i'm thinking if i was were in the position of a chinese official looking at you, i would be somewhat concerned about your role because your official title is involved in trade and business missions from the uk consulate in hong kong but, in fact, you have just told me that you were instructed by your diplomatic masters to observe and report upon the democracy demonstrations which, of course, were very large last summer in hong kong. so were you some sort of an undercover spy? not exactly undercover spy. i mean, i was on frontline. i mean, when i was... but you were on the front line to report back to your masters? i was on the frontline because i personally support the pro—democracy movement and i onlyjoined the legal rally and — but, meanwhile, i was instructed by the consulate that i needed to collect information that's amongst those news channels. right.

butjust to be clear, because of this notion that you are some way spying, you did not declare who you were to either your pro—democracy colleagues on the front line or to any police or authorities that may have tried to intervene. you were there, ostensibly, as a private hong kong citizen but in fact, you were there working for the british government. isn't that a slightly odd conflict of interest? indeed, that is slightly odd but... but you were a spy, mr cheng. i mean, i have a few identities — one is that i work for the consulate that is nothing relevant to politics, but meanwhile i am a hong kong citizen. that is a clear guidelines, that's the consulate saying you as a hong kong citizen, you have your own right, you are free to join the legal rallies in hong kong. when the british first asked you to report back to give them information on what you were learning about the pro—democracy demonstrations, did you,

at any point, pause for thought and think, "hmm, this could get me into trouble?" at that time, no. you know, like, at that time, i do believe there was a great chance for me to let the british government to get the information or keep tag why the protestors would go on the street. that is why ijoined, because i think that was meaningfulfor me. who is your first loyalty to — the british government or hong kong, which, of course, is ultimately sovereign territory of china. where was your loyalty? my loyalty would be the hong kong people first, because i am a hong kong citizen. and of course, i work for the uk government because i believe in democratic systems and i do believe that it is not safeguarding the interests of the uk but also it's because it can reinforce the people's voice for democracy. so, so to fast—forward a little bit, you now tell me that the chinese detained you in shenzhen

because they had either filmed you, they had some record of you being involved in the pro—democracy protest. the chinese, of course, are quite clear that you were picked up because you had illegally solicited for sex in shenzhen. you, at least, the very least, you violated china's security administration punishment law. is that true? not true. you said, i think, afterwards that you had visited a massage parlour. there is a massage parlour, but nothing else. i mean, what he — what they claim i clearly denied that arbitrary accusation, especially the accusations through illegal processes, including torture and coercion. right, because there are videos, of course — a video of your confession, notjust to soliciting prostitution but betrayal of the motherland. why did you record those videos? well, i think that is for public relations.

i mean, when i was asked out for doing the enforced confession tapes, actually, i am a bit relieved because i guessed at that time that my situation had been exposed to the news and then, so you have to do something to try to persuade the people that i, i so—called solicited prostitution — which is not true. if you can see that footage, that is a very decent massage parlour with very decent business certification on the wall, and if you carefully watch that footage at the end, there are a bunch of family members — including children to come — and if that country is very careful about the rule of law, they don't have enough evidence to prove anything. you have already, in this interview, used the word "torture"... yes. ..and in previous descriptions of what happened to you, you have used words like, "i was shackled, blindfolded, hooded". you say that your hands were cuffed and you were hung in a difficult

and uncomfortable position and then forced to sit in an uncomfortable position. is there any way you can prove any of this, because the chinese of course have denied absolutely that they used any form of physical abuse orforce on you. i would say that what the chinese authorities say is absolutely lies and nonsense. although i cannot prove that i have been tortured, but, as i am the first—hand experience, i experienced the torture. i clearly saw that detention centre, the doctors within the detention centre, in the first week, they jot my bruises, and my hurt on the paper, the medical record. and if the chinese authority did slightly — slightly did a very small investigation, they would know, they would know that within the detention centre,

the medical records, if they checked the first week, they would see i already got hurt. you have any marks on your body now? just a bit, but it's recovering because one of the prerequisites i had to be let out was because i had to be fully recovered. in the second week, the secret police brought ointments to help me. to get rid of the bruises and the marks? yes, exactly. you also said while in detention and while you claim suffering this physical abuse, you saw a bunch of other hong kong people getting interrogated. you were aware that there were other hongkongers — people involved in the pro—democracy demonstrations who presumably, like you, had been taken to shenzhen to be interrogated. any proof of that? because that is an extremely inflammatory claim — at least viewed from china. well, stephen, if you ask me to prove that, you know, at that situation,

at, like, that situation, i was detained, i cannot... did you gather any names, or names you could follow—up afterwards to see what happened? i'm not allowed to have contact with them because i am being put into solitary confinement. but what i — in the past, when i saw that bunch of people, from the bottom of my heart, i guessed they were hong kong protesters. but from two different sources — the interrogators — and interrogators told me that had been arrested because of the protests in hong kong. they are protesters. as you say, you eventually, after more than two weeks in detention, you are allowed to leave china and i believe you went to taiwan for a couple of months and then you came to the united kingdom, where you are now pursuing your claim for asylum which you say will be settled in just a couple of weeks. have you any contact at all with your family in hong kong? no. well, you know, early this year, i was still maintaining contact with my family members

in hong kong but afterwards, that's the first time, i received the media in cantonese, in chinese, and afterward that, i cut ties with my family. cut ties — you mean you've cut ties with a permanent basis with them? at least for the security reason, yes, because several family members in mainland china are afraid of being harassed because i chose to speak out, especially in cantonese, and it affects the chinese audience. do you feel that since all of this happened to you, the british government has responded with sufficient vigour to the seriousness of your case? you, after all, were an employee of the uk consulate in hong kong when you were detained and, according to yourself, when you were tortured by the chinese authorities. this happened less than one year ago. are you satisfied with the way the british government responded to your case?

well, at least the foreign secretary dominic raab called the — xiaoming, the chinese ambassador in the uk, and at least the official statement made by the foreign secretary recognised that my treatment amounts to torture. to me, it's quite enough already because i don't expect too much from the uk government because usually, when i worked for the uk government and what i saw, usually their statement to hong kong, very, very moderate. and that is very rare. very moderate? do you think the uk government, in your experience, as both an employee of the uk government and, as you say, as a private citizen who supports the pro—democracy movement, you feel that, over a long period, that the british government has been, to use your, euphemistic term, "very moderate" in its dealings with china? yeah, definitely. i would say, for example, because of the british diplomats and those people living in the uk,

they are not on the front line to deal with the authoritarianism. so that they could naturally moderate — that's why one of the reasons i wanted to inform them, actually, they need to stand with the hong kong people. let's bring it up to the present day because things have become even more sensitive in recent times since you left hong kong, with the chinese government, thanks to the latest decision from the national people's congress, about to impose a raft of national security laws that apply inside china on the mainland, apply them to hong kong as well. that will criminalise people who are said to be advocating separatism, subversion, terrorism, acts of foreign interference, hong kong citizens who are part of the movement believe that national security law will be used to repress all of their freedom of speech. what is your view of what the chinese government

is doing now? it's very hard to imagine less than a year what i entreat would be applied to all the hong kong people now in hong kong. before, this national—security law that i have been threatened, if i spoke out when i got back to hong kong, i would be secretly abducted from hong kong to mainland china. that happened long before this law. exactly. afterwards, the main point is that they legalise their behaviour. it means that they are not secretly doing it, they willjust openly do it, and they have legal grounds to do it. we are in a dark room because we don't know exactly what they will execute, and what is the jurisdiction between mainland china and hong kong, that is what i am so worried about. you are worried that the chinese

government has a very clear message. the deputy director of the hong kong affairs office in beijing says it's quite clear the security laws that have now been applied to hong kong will give the majority there much more freedom and protection, because they will no longer fear violence, they will be able to speak the truth on the street without being beaten up, and they will no longer have to worry about the young people of the territory being brainwashed by people like you. no, totally nonsense. because of course you can check, you can simply check all the judgement statements on the courts on mainland china. all the people, they just leave a critical comment on chinese leadership and chain authority, then, they will be criminalised as making trouble, or provoking quarrels. sure, but hong kong does have its own government, and the chief of the hong kong

government, carrie lam, she says she supports the new national—security law, because she says it will bring an end to chaos. chaos that has badly affected the hong kong economy, so the hong kong government, under the one country two systems edict, the hong kong government itself is supporting the national—security law. it means they have ruined the two systems already. that introduce the secret police to come to hong kong, they will charge you, detain you, torture you, deliver you back to mainland china because what you said, and that is the thing we are worried about, and the chaos they claim is caused by those powerful fields, by the authorities, not by the people. do you really believe that the system of one country two systems and all the basic law that is supposed to guarantee hong kong's special status under chinese sovereignty, you believe all that is now dead, do you? all dead, already.

a few years ago, people will say that it was just pretend, it was still a lie when the chinese authorities say that the declaration of independence is a historical document, that attitude of the chinese is very clear. let's bring it back to the british. you have seen in the last month or so the british government make a clear commitment that because of their concerns about the application of this new national—security law, they are now promising to meet their obligations to british national overseas passport holders, the number more than 300,000 in hong kong, thanks to the handover agreement of ‘97, and potentially, up to two and a half or 3 million more hong kongers could potentially get access to those so—called

bno passports, and it seems would be allowed to come to the uk for at least one year and maybe even apply for citizenship. what you make of what you have heard from borisjohnson on that issue? i would say that is a very encouraging signal, at least we finally see that the uk government, the attitudes to china have been made, u—turn, and is encouraging to most people. to me, comforting. you are a hong konger, you said to me i always think in the end is a loyal resident of hong kong. do you really want to see hundreds of thousands, potentially millions, of the brightest and the best in hong kong making an exodus, a rush for the exit door and leaving the territory? i would say why not? i mean, at least we need to protect the people of hong kong, that is the first duty. we need to safeguard them because if they are still staying in hong kong, and they have sacrificed their lives, it is worthless to me.

i would say that is notjust to rescue the hong kong people, we need to rescue all of democracy, and we need to rescue british citizens as well. you think many hong kongers will choose to leave? at least we need to give lifeboats for them, and if they want to help themselves, they have a way to leave. lifeboats? it is about more than just the capacity for those who have the passports to leave, it is about whether the international community will try to put real pressure on china in terms of economic sanctions, joshua wong, one of the prominent, young pro—democracy activists in hong kong has called on the uk government to impose wholesale sanctions in order to push for the withdrawal of the national—security bill by the chinese. he says we should at the very least expel the telecoms giant huawei from involvement in the uk 56 network. are you now as an activist

here in the uk, who actually wants asylum in the uk, are you pushing for the uk government to be much tougher? yes, we are working on it, and that is good news for us. at least what boris johnson said, it will sort it out by 2023, and i do believe that the uk government and also the west, they can stand up to china. interesting, because one of the most important players is donald trump and the united states. his messages are very mixed. 0n the one hand, he has blamed china for covid—i9 pandemic, he talks tough on china, but he has not, he very notably has not torn up the phase one trade deal with china. do you believe donald trump is serious about putting pressure on beijing? well, we will wait and see, but at least what we see compared

with other western countries, the us, at least they show the strongest bond to stand against china, and what we see, the statement made by the secretary of state, they are brave enough, they would treat the special status to hong kong, so i do believe they have a determination to save hong kong. i want to and with a personal thought. i think i'm right in saying, a young man who is still under 30, is that right? yes. you have made a massive life decision. given your experience last year, you have come to the uk, you are seeking political asylum, you have chosen to speak out, you are now part of the worldwide pro—democracy hong kong movement. your life has changed for ever, you will always, at least in the foreseeable future, be regarded as an enemy by china. do you believe that, in some ways, you will always face threat

in your life? definitely. that is the threat and even a smear campaign against me will be for the rest of my life. people ask me if i have solicited prostitution, if i am a traitor, and i am well prepared for it because i do not regret, i believe we need to fight for democracy, not only in hong kong, but in china. no regrets at all? because you have handled things very differently. you could have refused the british government, refused to report for the government, the british government, on the pro—democracy demonstrations, and i am just wondering, sitting here with you, whether you don't have some regrets about your decisions? no, not at all. i am very determined. i do believe at that time, i collected information for the better good, for the world, for the diplomats, and we can learn and hear about the voice of the true hong kong people, the people that

have no power, nothing they can do any more but the only way they can do, is go on the street, fight for democracy. simon cheng, thank you very much indeed for being on hardtalk. thank you so much. hello. a lot going on with our weather the next few days, and it's all being driven by an area of low pressure — this beautiful swirl of cloud here on the satellite picture. and rather than moving through quickly, this area of low pressure is just going to sit around, it's going to spin areas of rain up in our direction. brisk winds

for a time, as well. and with the flow of air around this area of low pressure, we're going to tap into something rather warm and potentially quite humid. so, to sum up the next few days, there will be some heavy, thundery downpours, with some sunny spells in between, and that warm and humid feel across most parts of the uk. now over recent hours, we've had a lot of rain across northeast england. that rain continues here, pushing into northwest england, northern ireland, eventually up into southern and eastern scotland. and across the south of england, another pulse of very heavy rain working in through the afternoon. some flashes of lightning, some rumbles of thunder are likely. this rain starting to get up into the southeast of wales, and the south midlands. the odd heavy shower following on behind. the temperatures a little bit higher than they have been, 2i celsius there in london. sunshine and showers to the north midlands into wales. a lot of cloud with some outbreaks in rain for northern england, and northern ireland. some of that rain eventually pushing up towards the southeast of scotland. but towards the northwest of scotland, well, here probably the best of the dry and sunny weather, although for some coasts

in the northeast, it's likely to stay more murky. and it's going to be quite a breezy day, as well. now as we move through friday night and into saturday, you can see further pulses of wet weather pushing across the map. some clear spells, as well. it's going to be a very mild night. we've got quite a few mild nights to come, actually. temperatures as we start saturday in double digits for most. now potentially another area of rain to push across northern england into northern ireland, parts of southern scotland. to the south of that, sunshine and really heavy showers breaking out — they will be quite well scattered. not everyone will get a shower but, if you do, it could bring some thunder, some lightning, some large hail and certainly a lot of rain in a short space of time. but look at the temperatures, 25 degrees in norwich, 20 there in glasgow. a bit cooler for some of these northern and eastern coasts where we keep a lot of cloud, some mist and fog. it could be quite grey and murky again for northeastern coasts on sunday. for most, it's another day of sunny spells and torrential, thundery downpours. and once again, it will feel warm — temperatures of 17 degrees in aberdeen, 2a celsius in london.

this is bbc news. i'm maryam moshiri with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. president trump renews his threat to intervene in seattle after anti—racist protesters pccupy the city centre. —— after anti—racist protesters occupy the city centre. worldwide markets suffer their sharpest fall for three months as fears grow over a second coronavirus spike. in an apparent u—turn, the uk government drops plans for full border controls when the brexit transition period ends. audio of crowd singing. spanish football is back behind closed doors but with the sound of cheering crowds providing the atmosphere.