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Australia Confirms One of Its Citizens Detained on Trip to China

Australian diplomats in Beijing will meet Chinese authorities to seek details on Yang’s detention and arrange consular access.

Australia Confirms One of Its Citizens Detained on Trip to China
A prison van transporting Rafael Hui, Hong Kong’s former chief secretary, leaves the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong, China. (Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg) 

(Bloomberg) -- Writer and former Chinese diplomat Yang Hengjun, who is now an Australian citizen, has been detained by the Chinese government, according to Australian authorities.

“The Chinese authorities informed the Australian Embassy in Beijing that they have detained Mr Yang Hengjun,” Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement on Wednesday. “The Department is seeking to clarify the nature of this detention and to obtain consular access to him, in accordance with the bilateral consular agreement, as a matter of priority.”

Australian diplomats in Beijing will meet with Chinese authorities Thursday to seek further details on Yang’s detention and arrange consular access, according to an emailed statement from Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne.

Yang boarded a flight from New York to the southeastern Chinese city of Guangzhou and was scheduled to arrive at 5 a.m. on Saturday, Feng Chongyi, an associate professor in China studies at the University of Technology Sydney, told Bloomberg News earlier on Wednesday. Yang was then due to catch a connecting flight to Shanghai with his wife and daughter, but he never made it through security, Feng said.

Australia Confirms One of Its Citizens Detained on Trip to China

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she wasn’t aware of Yang’s situation at a news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.

The Australian first reported that Yang was feared missing. Australian Defense Minister Christopher Pyne is scheduled to arrive in China on Thursday as part of a previously announced visit.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Yang hasn’t communicated or posted anything on social media since Friday. Yang had previously worked in the Chinese Foreign Affairs Department in Beijing, before becoming an Australian citizen and a novelist, the Australian newspaper said. He has been living in the U.S. with his wife and stepson and had returned to China late last week, it said.

Feng said he spoke with contacts at the Ministry of State Security, China’s spy agency, and he believes Yang is being held there in Beijing.

The ministry has been in the global spotlight in recent months amid tensions between the U.S. and China. After a top Huawei Technologies Co. executive was arrested in Canada on a U.S. extradition request, MSS agents detained two Canadians in China, sparking a diplomatic feud. It’s been involved in high profile detentions of foreigners and has put dissidents under house arrest without criminal charges.

Feng, who researches human rights, said pressure on the global Chinese diaspora has escalated in recent years. He was detained in China for more than a week in 2017. At the time, his lawyer told the Guardian newspaper that Chinese authorities had cited “national security” in barring him from leaving the country.

--With assistance from Michael Heath, James Mayger, Peter Martin, April Ma and Lucille Liu.

To contact the reporter on this story: Karen Leigh in Hong Kong at kleigh4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Sharon Chen, Daniel Ten Kate

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.