Jia Jia was last heard from at Beijing airport on Tuesday and friends fear he has become latest victim of crackdown on dissent

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A Chinese journalist has reportedly disappeared while attempting to fly from Beijing to Hong Kong, stoking fears he has become the latest victim of a widening Communist party crackdown on dissent.

Jia Jia, a politically engaged 35-year-old columnist with more than 84,000 Twitter followers, was last heard from at about 8pm on Tuesday, according to a report in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.



The journalist’s wife, who was not named, told the newspaper he had called her to say he had cleared customs at Beijing airport and was preparing to board a flight that was scheduled to arrive in the former British colony at 11.30pm.



However, Jia was not heard from again and failed to turn up to a planned lunch in Hong Kong the following day.



“I do not know if he was taken from the airport lounge or from the plane or in Hong Kong,” one friend, who was also not named, was quoted as saying by the Apple Daily.

Multiple reports from activist groups and Hong Kong media suggested there was a connection between Jia’s apparent detention and an explosive letter calling for the resignation of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, which was published early this month on Wujie News, a website with ties to the Chinese government.



The letter, which was subsequently deleted, accused Xi of jeopardising the Communist party’s future by nurturing a personality cult around himself.



“Comrade Xi Jinping, we have no choice but to point out that, precisely due to your gathering of all power into your own hands and making decisions directly, we are now facing unprecedented problems and crises in all political, economic, ideological, and cultural spheres,” it said, according to a translation by China Digital Times, a website run by the University of California at Berkeley.



“[Your actions] make those of us who experienced the Cultural Revolution unable to not secretly worry,” the letter added. “Our party, country, and people cannot bear another decade of calamity!”



Jia is friends with Ouyang Hongliang, Wujie News’s chief executive, the Hong Kong Free Press website reported, citing local media reports.



Zhou Fengsuo, a human rights activist who knows Jia, said that not long before his disappearance the journalist had told friends he feared he was being investigated and could be detained.

The US-based activist said supporters feared Jia had become the latest victim of what activists say is the worst crackdown on government opponents in China since the roundup of pro-democracy protesters after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

“Recently Xi is paranoid,” Zhou said. “He is going after anyone who is in his way.”

In a tweet sent three days before his disappearance, Jia expressed concern at the deteriorating political situation in China, which has seen academics, journalists, artists and activists face pressure or even jail.



“Literature must intervene in politics until politics doesn’t intervene in literature any more,” Jia wrote. “The arts must intervene in politics until politics doesn’t intervene in the arts any more. Journalism must intervene in politics until politics doesn’t intervene in journalism any more.”