The Australian government has confirmed Australian-Chinese writer Yang Hengjun has been detained in China, as Defence Minister Christopher Pyne flies in to Beijing.
The Chinese-Australian dissident and democracy activist became the latest Western citizen to be detained in China, Australia's foreign ministry confirmed Wednesday.
Yang Hengjun - a novelist and former Chinese diplomat - went missing shortly after he travelled to the southern city of Guangzhou last week, friends said.
My Pyne was originally arriving in Beijing for his one-day trip to mend ties with China following rising tensions over the last 12 months.
Australia's campaign to ban Huawei from 5G networks was going to be a central talking point during his meeting with China's Minister for National Defence General Wei Fenghe.
But Mr Yang's detention has created another potentially damaging diplomatic row.
The department said Mr Yang did not finish the second part of his travel plans from Guangzhou to Shanghai on 19 January.
"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 late Wednesday.
"The Department is seeking to clarify the nature of this detention and to obtain consular access to him... as a matter of priority."
The Australian government is believed to be in contact with Yang's friends and family, as well as Chinese authorities.
Authorities in Guangzhou did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yang's disappearance prompted fears that he may be the latest victim of an increasingly broad dragnet by Chinese security services.
Dr Yang's PhD supervisor, Dr Feng Chongyi at the University of Technology Sydney, said he believes Mr Yang "must have been detained by the Ministry of State Security" at Guangzhou airport.
He he believes Mr Yang's disappearance is a response to Australia's sharp criticism of China's detention of three Canadians.
"Australian government made an announcement on the detention of a few Canadian citizens, demanding their release. In my opinion, Yang's disappearance is related to that," Dr Feng said, who has also been in touch with Dr Yang's family.
"China wants to expand the scope of this. They pose pressure on the Australian and Canadian governments by holding citizens."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the situation was "very concerning".
“We are very supportive of the department's efforts to reach out and get to the bottom of this this is not the way which our relations between our two countries should be conducted, at all,” he said.
“You can't sugar-coat this, this is an Australian citizen whose been detained in China - it is very concerning, I can't pretend otherwise.”
China-Australia tensions over detained Canadians
Concerns for Mr Yang follow accusations the Chinese government detained three Canadians amid a diplomatic spat between Beijing and Ottawa.
The recent detentions of a Canadian former diplomat and a Canadian entrepreneur have raised suspicions that Beijing is holding them in retaliation for Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou's December 1 arrest, though no link has officially been made between the cases.
China accused the detainees - former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and China-based business consultant Michael Spavor - of activities "that endanger China's national security".
