A Bradford businessman today told how he was held without reason for more than eight hours by Chinese security guards in Beijing.

Wool boss Raymond Seal's ordeal happened at the height of the diplomatic crisis following Nato's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Mr Seal, who has made more than 200 stops in China on scheduled business trips, was forced to cut short his mission and was forced on a plane back to Britain.

He was given no other reason for his detention other than that he held a British passport. Now Mr Seal says the incident has cost him more than £2,500 in wasted air fares.

Mr Seal, chairman of cashmere de-hairing firm Seal International, was on the way to his joint-venture company in Ulan Bator in Mongolia, when he was stopped at Beijing Airport and detained by Chinese officials.

He was denied access to the connecting plane to the Mongolian capital, his passport was taken off him and he was left waiting for eight hours before being returned to the UK.

Mr Seal said: "They told me that because I had a British passport I would have to go back to Britain. They brought out a security guard who escorted me to a room.

"I was not able to get anything to eat for eight hours and it felt very uncomfortable. They denied it had anything to do with the bombing. But it was clear that I was not welcome in China because of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

"I was told that if I had any other passport everything would be all right. I was held for eight hours, not allowed to go on to Mongolia and did not have my passport returned until I got on the Swiss Air return flight to Zurich and on to Manchester Airport. The guards were reasonably friendly but I was a bit distressed to not have my passport for all that time. My trip was an expensive waste of time as I lost out on business opportunities in Mongolia and it cost me a lot of money."

Now, because of the pressing nature of his business, he plans to return to Mongolia next week via Moscow which will cost him £3,000.

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