Chinese journalist Haze Fan is being held in pretrial detention for allegedly endangering national security. Beijing police arrested Fan, a staff member in the Bloomberg News Beijing bureau, on December 7, 2020.
Fan is a reporter and producer covering breaking business news in China for the U.S. outlet Bloomberg News, according to her LinkedIn page. Fan began working for the outlet in 2017 and previously worked for CNBC, CBS News, Al-Jazeera, and Thomson Reuters, according to a Bloomberg statement.
Plainclothes security officials in Beijing arrested Fan at her apartment on December 7, 2020, on suspicion of participating in activities endangering national security, that statement said.
According to news reports quoting Chinese authorities, Fan was being investigated for “engaging in criminal activities that jeopardize national security” in late 2020. As of September 2021, CPJ was unable to determine whether she had been formally charged.
A Bloomberg spokesperson told CPJ via email in September 2021, "Haze is a popular and much-valued member of our newsroom. We remain very concerned for her well-being and will continue to do everything we can to support her and her family."
Foreign news organizations operating in China are prohibited by law from directly hiring Chinese citizens as employees and must rely on personnel hired by personnel companies affiliated with the Foreign Ministry.
Neither the news reports nor the Bloomberg statement disclosed the name or location of the facility where Fan is being held.
The Beijing National Security Bureau did not respond to CPJ’s email requesting information about Fan in September 2021.