A Sydney-based Chinese academic will remain in China to face further questioning by secret police who have stopped him flying home to Australia.
Associate professor Chongyi Feng, who has previously spoken out against China’s ruling Communist Party “shutting down speech”, has been stranded with his wife in Guangzhou after being barred from flying to Australia twice over the weekend.
The University of Technology Sydney professor had been in China researching Chinese human rights lawyers and was suspected of being involved in a threat to national security.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said in a statement on Monday he was making representations in Beijing and Canberra about the professor’s case while UTS is appealing to the Chinese Consulate in Sydney to negotiate his release.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is unable to provide assistance for Dr Feng, a permanent resident, as he did not enter China on an Australian passport.
The university, however, said it believed the federal government was “taking the matter up”.
A friend of Dr Feng’s, John Hugh, spoke by phone with Dr Feng on Monday and said while he remained calm he was frustrated at not being able to leave China.
