Vanished journalist detained in China, claims wife

BeiJing: A Chinese award-winning photojournalist vanished in the restive northwest region of Xinjiang earlier this month after he was reportedly detained by security agents, his wife said.

The wife of Lu Guang (pic) said she lost contact with him on the night of Nov 3 when he was in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, a heavily policed region where authorities are accused of running a network of internment camps.

Lu, a US resident, was visiting the region as a tourist and to teach and interact with local photographers, Xu Xiaoli said from New York, where she lives.

“I haven’t heard anything new,” Xu said. “He had never been to Xinjiang before.”

Lu’s 25-year career as a photographer has produced many award-winning photos which delve into the dark side of China’s economic development and societal changes, documenting industrial pollution, worker abuse, AIDSplagued villages, and the illegal export of African timber to China.

A World Press Photo awards winner, Lu had planned to travel from Xinjiang to southwestern Sichuan province on Nov 5 and rendezvous with a friend, who was unable to reach him, his wife said on Twitter.

She later heard through a friend that Lu had been held by state security and then taken to the city of Kashgar, a report which she said was confirmed to her by authorities in Lu’s hometown city of Yongkang, Zhejiang province. — AFP