Australian government seek information about missing writer in China

The Australian government has said it is seeking information about a Chinese-Australian writer who has been reported missing in China.

Novelist and influential online commentator Yang Hengjun was a Chinese diplomat before he became an Australian citizen. Friends say he been living in the United States with his wife and her child and had returned to China late last week.

The Australian government says it is investigating reports a Chinese-Australian writer has gone missing in China.

Sydney academic Feng Chongyi said he feared that Yang had been detained by Chinese authorities.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said she was "not aware" of the case.

Yang, an Australian citizen who now lives in the US, has a sizeable following online and has been critical of China's Communist Party.

He was briefly unreachable on a trip to China in 2011 - prompting fears he was missing - but later attributed the episode to a "misunderstanding".

Associate Prof Feng, an academic at the University of Technology Sydney, said he had warned Yang recently against travelling to China, but that Yang had replied that he considered himself to be safe.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was not aware of the case but would ask relevant departments for information.

Correspondents say this follows a similar pattern to the cases of 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.