[Details of the investigation were
not immediately available. It comes after months of deteriorating conditions
for Western media organizations in China, with a number of American and
Australian journalists effectively expelled over the past year. Chinese
nationals employed by Western media outlets have been warned by authorities in
recent months to watch their step.]
By Eva Dou
Fan, a Chinese national, was taken
away by plainclothes security officers from her Beijing apartment at about
11:30 a.m. on Monday, according to Bloomberg News.
Details of the investigation were
not immediately available. It comes after months of deteriorating conditions
for Western media organizations in China, with a number of American and
Australian journalists effectively expelled over the past year. Chinese nationals
employed by Western media outlets have been warned by authorities in recent
months to watch their step.
[China
detains Australian anchor for Chinese state-run TV network]
“We are very concerned for her, and have been actively speaking to Chinese authorities to better understand the situation. We are continuing to do everything we can to support her while we seek more information,” a Bloomberg spokesperson was quoted saying in a Bloomberg News article.
Fan worked on China business news
topics for Bloomberg News, traditionally considered less risky for Chinese
nationals than political news.
Fan’s detention is the latest in a
year of shock waves for Western news outlets in China amid increasingly fraught
relations.
An Australian national, Cheng Lei,
who worked as an anchor for a Chinese state-run broadcaster, was detained in August on suspicion of endangering national
security. Several weeks later, two other Australian journalists fled China, after authorities said they had to stay in the
country for questioning about Cheng’s case.
Earlier this year, Beijing effectively expelled American journalists from The
Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal, in retaliation for the
Trump administration’s new restrictions on Chinese state media.
[Beijing
pulls credentials for journalists at three U.S. news outlets]
Chinese nationals employed by
foreign media have also been under growing pressure. China does not allow its
nationals to work as journalists for foreign media organizations in China, only
as news assistants. Several Chinese news assistants for major Western media
outlets had their work credentials revoked by Beijing this year after they
assisted with reporting on the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.
Fan has worked for Bloomberg News
in Beijing since 2017, with prior stints at CNBC, Al Jazeera, CBS News and
Thomson Reuters, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Tom Mackenzie, a Beijing-based
Bloomberg News TV anchor, called Fan’s arrest “deeply disturbing,” in a Twitter post.
“I worked alongside Haze for almost
2 years when she was our China TV Producer. It’s no exaggeration to say she is
one of the best, most driven and committed journalists out here,” he wrote.
Read more
Beijing
pulls credentials for journalists at three U.S. news outlets, including The
Post
Hong
Kong media publisher Jimmy Lai is charged under national security law
China
detains Australian anchor for Chinese state-run TV network
