Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun feared detained in China

Friends of a Chinese-Australian writer and former diplomat fear he may be been detained by authorities in China.

Yang Hengjun, a pro-democracy Australian-Chinese writer and blogger.

Friends of a Chinese-Australian writer and former diplomat fear he may be been detained by authorities in China.

Yang Hengjun is a novelist and thinker who previously worked in the Chinese Foreign Affairs Department in Beijing before becoming an Australian citizen.

He has been living in the United States with his wife and her child and had returned to China late last week.

Mr Yang’s friend, University of Technology Sydney academic Feng Chongyi, said he believes he is now being detained in Beijing by the Ministry of State Security.

“My judgment is based on my information that Yang Jun has been abducted by the personnel of the state security, the ministry of state security and is currently detained in Beijing with his wife,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for comment and have not yet confirmed Mr Yang has been detained. Friends have reported him missing to DFAT.

Dr Feng himself was detained in China in 2017 and questioned by the nation’s security services before being released and allowed to return to Australia.

He said Mr Yang arrived in China on January 19.

“His wife and his wife’s daughter took a flight from New York to Guangzhou on the 18th of January and arrived in Guangzhou at 5am on the 19th of January - that’s the Saturday morning - then their relatives and friends get in touch with them on the understanding they will take the 7.20am flight to Shanghai,” Dr Feng said.

“But they did not take the original flight and by 7pm on Saturday the 19th, Yan Jun wife and daughter arrive in Shanghai without Yang Jun.”

Dr Feng said he believes Mr Yang may have been taken by Chinese authorities to Beijing.

“My judgement is they were interrogated by [authorities] in Guangzhou airport for 12 hours and reached some sort of agreement that his wife was allowed to send the child back to family in Shanghai but required to join Yang Jun in Beijing.”

Dr Feng said he believed Mr Yang’s wife was also now in Beijing after she sent a message to friends about her whereabouts on January 20.

The Australian government confirmed on Wednesday they were asking Chinese authorities about Mr Yang.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is seeking information about an Australian citizen who has been reported missing in China,” a spokeswoman for the department said.

Mr Yang also went missing briefly in China in 2011, but later was released and claimed it was a “misunderstanding”.

While he is an Australian citizen, his friends say his wife is not and is seeking Australian residency. He also has family members who are believed to reside in Australia.

Mr Yang is an influential Chinese language blogger and he has also written a series of international spy novels including Fatal Weakness, Fatal Weapon and Fatal Assassination.

His disappearance comes ahead of Defence Minister Christopher Pyne’s visit to China over the next few days.

It also follows China’s detention of two Canadian citizens, entrepreneur Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig.

Former government advisor John Garnaut is a friend of Mr Yang and is concerned about his fate.

“Henry Yang is a brilliant, courageous and extraordinarily popular writer. He is also an Australian citizen,” he said.

“Let’s hope he reappears today so we can all agree there’s just been a misunderstanding. Nobody wants an Australian Michael Kovrig.”