Chinese authorities have detained an employee of the Bloomberg News Beijing bureau on suspicion of endangering national security.
Haze Fan, a Chinese citizen, was last seen Monday being escorted from her apartment by plainclothes security officials, according to Bloomberg. Her editors last heard from her that day at 11:30 a.m. local time.
Chinese authorities confirmed to Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, that Fan was being held “on suspicion of participating in activities endangering national security.” Fan’s family was notified within 24 hours.
“We are very concerned for her, and have been actively speaking to Chinese authorities to better understand the situation,” a Bloomberg spokesperson said. “We are continuing to do everything we can to support her while we seek more information.”
China’s relationship has deteriorated in recent months, according to the Washington Post. China has effectively expelled a number of U.S. and Australian journalists in retaliation for President Trump’s restrictions on Chinese state media and warned Chinese citizens who work for Western media outlets to “watch their step.”
“Haze is a very talented person, very respected, integral part of our newsroom, very popular, and we are deeply concerned for her wellbeing,” Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said. “We have spoken to a lot of people on a formal basis all away across the world. … We’ve obviously tried as hard as possible to find out exactly what [happened].”
Micklethwait said that it’s unclear what the next steps will be but added that the outlet “will continue to work as hard as possible to help her and her family at this time.”
