China prevents professor from returning to Sydney

An academic at an Australian university has been prevented by Chinese authorities from returning to Sydney because he’s suspected of endangering national security, his lawyer said.

Border officials at an airport in the southern city of Guangzhou refused to let Feng Chongyi, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, catch his flight home on Friday and Saturday, according to Feng’s lawyer, Chen Jinxue.

“He has no way of leaving China right now,” Chen said Sunday.

Officials have not said why they suspect Feng of “endangering national security,” Chen said, but it could be related to his research on human rights lawyers. Feng had been wrapping up a three-week trip researching that topic.

State security officials met with Feng at his hotel in Guangzhou and asked him during a two-hour conversation who he met with in China and in Australia in the course of his research, Chen said.

The incident unfolded as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang finished a five-day trip to Australia, where the two countries sought to boost trade ties. Li flew to New Zealand on Sunday.

Chinese authorities have staged a wide-reaching crackdown on human rights lawyers across the country since July 2015, accusing such attorneys of being a threat to national security.

The chief justice said earlier this month that convictions of a prominent defense attorney and his associates caught up in the crackdown were among the country’s top legal achievements last year. Others have also been arrested and accused of subversion or endangering state security. /