Chinese authorities have arrested Haze Fan, a Chinese employee of Bloomberg’s Beijing bureau, on suspicion of endangering national security. Bloomberg reported on Dec. 11 that efforts have been underway to contact the Chinese government and the Chinese Embassy in the United States to obtain information about Fan and her whereabouts since she disappeared four days ago. According to a variety of sources, Fan is close friends with Australian citizen Cheng Lei, an anchor for the Chinese government media who was detained earlier on national security issues, and who collected supplies for frontline medical workers in Wuhan in February.
Cheng Lei, who works for the Chinese government media China Global Television Network (CGTN), was detained in Beijing in August on “suspicion of criminal activities against China’s national security” and has not been released. Cheng Lei’s personal Facebook page shows that she is close friends with Fan Ruoy, a Bloomberg employee who was taken away by Beijing’s state security authorities on Dec. 7 on the same grounds.
In February, Cheng Lei posted that she and Fan had each asked her company for permission to travel to Wuhan to cover the epidemic, but were not allowed to do so, so they each raised money and supplies for frontline medical workers in Wuhan, and within hours had collected more than 100,000 yuan and other supplies to give to doctors at Peking Union Medical College Hospital who were preparing to travel to Wuhan. Fan also posted a photo of herself and Cheng Lei on her Instagram account in 2018, signifying their friendly relationship.
Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said in an interview Friday that Bloomberg will continue to follow the progress of the incident and will do its best to provide help to Fan and her family. He said, “Van is very talented and a key member of our newsroom. He said the incident will not change the way Bloomberg covers China, saying “we intend to continue to cover China in exactly the same way as we have in the past, and we have covered a lot of stories exclusively in China and we will continue to do so.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter, Micklethwaite, Bloomberg senior executive editor Madeleine Lim and Greater China executive editor John Liu told Chinese staffers on a conference call that Chinese authorities told Bloomberg that “Van Rooij’s detention had nothing to do with her work “. Bloomberg employees were told they could continue working because the company believed Fan Ruo Yi’s detention was not related to her work, the sources said. Executives continued that Bloomberg is doing its best to support Van Rooij and her family.
In addition, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in China (FCCC) also tweeted a statement expressing solidarity with Fan Ruoi, saying it was concerned about her arrest and was seeking information from the Chinese side about the incident.
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