![\"Chongyi](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2017\/03\/Chongyi-Feng.jpg\")
A Sydney professor and critic of growing Chinese government influence in Australia has been prevented from boarding a flight to return home to Sydney, and the ABC understands he has been told he is not allowed to leave China.<\/p>\nA Sydney professor and critic of growing Chinese government influence in Australia has been prevented from boarding a flight to return home to Sydney, and the ABC understands he has been told he is not allowed to leave China.<\/p>\n
Chongyi Feng, an Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), had been visiting China but friends say he was stopped from taking a flight to Australia while at Guangzhou airport in southern China on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
It was the second time in as many days that the prominent Sydney-based academic and China expert had been blocked from boarding a flight.<\/p>\n
During a brief phone call that cut out, he also declined to give a reason, or discuss his situation in detail.<\/p>\n
Friends based in Australia say it is a positive sign that he is not being held completely incommunicado.<\/p>\n
A staff member at a Guangzhou hotel where some friends claimed Dr Feng was being held said his name did not match anyone on its guest list.<\/p>\n
“The Australian Government is aware that a UTS professor, who is an Australian permanent resident, has been prevented from leaving China,” a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said.<\/p>\n
“The Australian Government is able to provide consular assistance only to Australian citizens who have entered China on their Australian passport.”<\/p>\n
Dr Feng is prominent in Australia’s Chinese community, having previously been the head of Chinese Studies at UTS for 11 years, and was at one point a newspaper publisher.<\/p>\n
More recently he had been vocal about the growing control and influence of Beijing on Australia’s Chinese-language media<\/a> outlets.<\/p>\n He had travelled to China before without incident.<\/p>\n His apparent ordeal comes as China’s Premier Li Keqiang wraps up an unprecedented five-day visit to Australia<\/a> in which he is promoting closer economic ties between the two countries.<\/p>\n It also comes as the Senate considers ratifying an extradition treaty between Australia and China that has been held up for the best part of a decade due to concerns about China’s Communist Party-controlled legal system.<\/p>\n Source\uff1ahttp:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2017-03-25\/uts-professor-prevented-from-boarding-flight-from-china\/8386982<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Sydney professor and critic of growing … Continue reading