Update | Chinese-Australian artist to be deported after detention in Beijing
Guo Jian was taken into a 15-day custody on a visa-related matter, Beijing tells Canberra
A Chinese-born Australian artist detained in Beijing before the 25th anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown will be deported after 15 days in custody, Australia said on Friday.
Guo Jian, a former protester in the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement, was taken from his home in suburban Beijing by Chinese authorities on Sunday night after a profile of him appeared in the Financial Times newspaper in commemoration of the anniversary of the crackdown.
“Chinese authorities have advised that Mr Guo was detained on a visa-related matter,” Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement.
“We understand Mr Guo will be detained for 15 days and then required to depart China,” it said, adding that the Australian government would provide consular help during his detention.
The department said consular officials were allowed to visit Guo in Beijing.
The detention of Guo, 52, was part of a string of detentions of artists, lawyers, scholars and journalists ahead of the Tiananmen anniversary amid intense government efforts to deter coverage by international media of its remembrance.