A former British Consulate-General in Hong Kong, who claimed to have been imprisoned and assaulted by the Chinese government for two weeks, fled to the United Kingdom.

According to BBC broadcasts on the 1st (local time), the British government approved the political asylum of Simon Chung, a Hong Kong man who worked at the British Consulate General in Hong Kong last month.

At the press conference held today, he said he appears to have been granted the first political asylum among British National Overseas (BNO) passport holders.

"I'm grateful for the British government's courage to save British citizens abroad," he said on Facebook. "I hope my case will be a precedent to other Hong Kong people who want protection."

Said Simon Chung, "The beginning is not the end, but the beginning." We promised, "We will continue to fight the spread of totalitarianism and return to our hometown with true democracy and freedom."

The British government announced that it would revise immigration law to ensure that all Hong Kong residents who had previously had BNO passports acquired British citizenship.

The British government will revise immigration law to allow BNO passport holders to live and work for five years after entering the UK.

Five years later, it was decided to grant a settled status and allow citizenship applications again after 12 months.

The UK Interior Ministry said it would not comment on an individual's asylum.

Simon Chung, who worked as a trade and investment officer at the British Consulate General in Hong Kong, was arrested by a Chinese police officer while returning to Hong Kong on a business trip to Shenzhen, China on August 8 last year.

He later claimed to have been tortured after being imprisoned.

Simon Chung said the public pressured him to dismiss the UK's protests and funded protests in Hong Kong.

Simon Chung was released two weeks after he was convicted of prostitution on August 24.

He quit his job as a consulate saying he can't go on a business trip to China anymore, and later said he was moving from place to place because of fear of personal safety.

The British government deemed Simon Justice's claim to be credible, and also asked Foreign Minister Dominic Rab to give an adequate explanation to the Chinese government.

Last month, China said China was still not responding to British questions.

(yunhap news)