Interpol says its president who was reported missing after returning to his native China has resigned amid a probe in Beijing.

Meng Hongwei vanished after returning to his homeland and his wife voiced concern for his life after he sent her a final text message with a knife emoji.

Beijing had remained tight-lipped about Meng's fate since his disappearance was disclosed by French officials on Friday.

But on Sunday, Chinese authorities confirmed Meng, who is also China's vice minister for public security, is being investigated over suspected violations of the law.

Hours later, Interpol confirmed Meng had resigned as president of the international police organisation.

'Today, Sunday 7 October, (at) the Interpol General Secretariat in Lyon, France received the resignation of Mr Meng Hongwei as President of Interpol with immediate effect,' Interpol said in a statement.

Grace Meng is giving a press conference today after her husband Meng Hongwei (pictured) seemingly vanished while on a trip home to China

Interpol said South Korean national Kim Jong Yang would becomes its acting president, while it would appoint a new president at a November meeting of the organisation in Dubai.

Earlier on SUnday Grace Meng revealed she has not heard from her husband since September 25.

Making her first public comments on the mystery surrounding Meng's whereabouts, she told reporters in Lyon, France - where Interpol is based - that she thinks the knife was her husband's way of trying to tell her he was in danger.

She said four minutes before Meng shared the emoji of the knife, he sent a message saying 'wait for my call'.

She said she has had no further contact with him since the message that was sent on September 25.

Then on Sunday, Chinese authorities confirmed Meng is under investigation for unspecified violations of the law.

The disciplinary organ of China's ruling Communist Party says the head of Interpol is under investigation on suspicion of unspecified legal violations.

Grace Meng read a statement during her press conference in Lyon but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her safety and the safety of her two children

Grace Meng, the wife of missing Interpol President Meng Hongwei, who does not want her face shown, consults her mobile phone in the lobby of a hotel in Lyon on Sunday

The party's watchdog for graft and political disloyalty said on its website late on Sunday that Meng, China's vice minister of public security, is 'suspected of violating the law and is currently under the monitoring and investigation' of China's new anti-corruption body, the National Supervision Commission.

Meng is a senior Chinese security official as well as president of the International Criminal Police Organisation.

Interpol said on Saturday it has used law enforcement channels to inquire with China about Meng's status.

Grace Meng refused to speculate on what might have happened to him or whether he had been arrested, saying: 'In China, what happened, I'm not sure.'

Meng's wife said he had traveled back to China for work, after a visit to the Nordics.

'His job is very busy,' she said. 'We connected every day.'

She read a statement during her press conference in Lyon but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her own safety and the safety of her two children.

A journalist holds Grace Meng's mobile phone, showing what she says is the last message exchanged with her husband, during a press conference on Sunday

French police investigating the 64-year-old's disappearance have placed his family under special protection.

The country's interior ministry said they were under police supervision in Lyon after Meng's wife was threatened over the phone and on social media.

A source familiar with the investigation said the working assumption was that Meng had antagonised Chinese authorities and had been detained as a result.

Previously, Interpol had said that reports about Meng's disappearance were 'a matter for the relevant authorities in both France and China.'

The organisation went out of its way to say that its secretary general, not Meng, was responsible for the day-to-day running of the agency.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Chinese Communist Party's secretive internal investigation agency, had no announcements on its website about Meng and could not be reached for comment.

News of Meng's apparent disappearance comes after Chinese officials announced that Hollywood star Fan Bingbing (pictured) had been ordered to pay millions of dollars in taxes

News of Meng's apparent disappearance comes after Chinese officials announced that Hollywood star Fan Bingbing, who also vanished without a trace several months ago, has been ordered to pay millions of dollars in alleged back taxes and penalties.

Fan took to social media for the first time in months on Wednesday to apologise to fans and the Communist Party for tax evasion, shortly after news broke that authorities had ordered her to pay nearly $130 million in back taxes and fines.

The 36-year-old took to China's Twitter-like Weibo to acknowledge her wrongs, beg for her supporters' forgiveness, and apologise to 'society, the friends who care about me, the public and the national tax authorities.'

'Without the Party and country's good policies, without the loving attention of the masses, there would be no Fan Bingbing,' she wrote to her 62 million followers.

The actress, model and producer had been a ubiquitous household name in China for years and tasted Hollywood success with a role in the 2014 blockbuster 'X-Men: Days of Future Past.'

But she disappeared from the public eye and her once active social media presence went silent in May after allegations emerged that she had evaded taxes on a lucrative movie shoot, charges her studio called 'slander'.