INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightYANG HENGJUN/TWITTERImage caption
Yang Hengjun is a popular blogger and former Chinese diplomat
A Chinese-Australian writer who went missing at the weekend has been detained in China, the Australian government says.Yang Hengjun, a
former Chinese diplomat, has been held since flying from New York to Guangzhou on Saturday.China informed Australia that the 53-year-old
popular blogger was in custody, but it has not clarified why.Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne urged China to handle the matter
"transparently and fairly".Ms Payne said embassy officials would meet with Chinese counterparts on Thursday to "arrange consular access at
the earliest possible opportunity".Mr Yang, an Australian citizen, travelled to China with his wife, Chinese national Yuan Rui Juan, and
It is believed that Ms Yuan has been interviewed by Chinese officials in Beijing, after first travelling to Shanghai to leave her son with
relatives.Chinese officials have not commented since confirming Mr Yang's detention to Australia
On Wednesday, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said she was "not aware" of the case.Who is Mr YangHe has a sizeable following online and has
sometimes written critically about China's Communist Party, but less so in recent times
He also authors spy novels.Image copyrightREUTERSImage caption
Yang Hengjun has blogged about political issues in China
Mr Yang was briefly unreachable on a trip to China in 2011 - prompting fears he was missing - but later attributed the
episode to a "misunderstanding".He currently lives in New York and is a visiting scholar at Columbia University, said his friend Feng
Chongyi, an academic at University of Technology Sydney.Associate Prof Feng said that he had warned Mr Yang recently against travelling to
China, but that Mr Yang had replied that he considered himself to be safe.Mr Yang had not responded to messages in recent days, his friend
said."He is one of the most influential bloggers on political issues in China, where he's earned the nickname of 'Democracy Peddler'
through talking about democracy and human rights," Associate Prof Feng told the TheIndianSubcontinent on Wednesday.What else has happened
recentlyCorrespondents say Mr Yang's case follows a similar pattern to the cases of the two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael
Spavor, who were detained in China in recent weeks.In both cases, the foreign ministry initially said it had no knowledge of them being
held, then confirmed they were in the hands of state security a few days later.Australia has previously expressed "concern" about the
arrests of the Canadians.China has denied the detention of the two men is tied to Canada's arrest of a senior Huawei official, Meng
Wanzhou, but many analysts believe it is a tit-for-tat action.Mr Yang's detention comes as Australian Defence Minister Christopher Pyne is
due to visit Beijing on Thursday.
