BEIJING - A Chinese-Australian writer whose disappearance in China ignited alarm during a crackdown on dissent said on Friday he is safe and plans to return to Australia in coming days. The novelist and blogger, Yang Hengjun, an Australian national born in China, was reported by friends to be missing on Sunday, prompting concern from Australia, whose Prime Minister Julia Gillard is due to visit China this month. On Wednesday, Yang contacted friends who feared he had been held by security police in Guangdong province in far southern China in a crackdown on dissidents. Yang often visits China and keeps a Chinese-language blog that airs his liberal views.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)