Australia seeks information about author missing in China

The Australian government is seeking information about the whereabouts of a prominent Chinese-Australian writer who has been out of contact after arriving in China over five days ago, media reports said.

Yang Hengjun, a dissident and former Chinese diplomat, was travelling with his wife and child. He flew from New York to the Chinese city of Guangzhou on January 18 and had originally planned to travel to Shanghai on January 19, but did not take the flight.

His friends fear Yang has been detained by Chinese authorities.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs said it is seeking information on the whereabouts of Yang, ABC News reported.

Yang, a former employee of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, later gained Australian citizenship and became a prominent writer and an outspoken online political commentator.

Two friends of Yang, the U.S.-based publisher Shi Wei and Feng Chongyi, a professor at the University of Technology Sydney, told The Washington Post they lost contact with the writer after he landed in China early on Saturday.

Yang's wife told friends that she was questioned in Guangzhou and that her husband had been detained by state security, according to Feng.

Yang's absence on both Chinese social media and Twitter, where he has more than 130,000 followers, has also raised concerns.

China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to queries, ABC reported.

During a 2011 trip to China, Yang had been unreachable for several days. He later said the whole episode was a "misunderstanding".

The detention comes a month after China detained two Canadians in what was seen as retaliation for Canada's arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the United States.