It comes after months of deteriorating conditions for Western media organizations in China, with a number of American and Australian journalists effectively expelled over the past year. Chinese nationals employed by Western media outlets have been warned by authorities in recent months to watch their step. Fan worked on China business news topics for Bloomberg News, traditionally considered less risky for Chinese nationals than political news. Fan’s detention is the latest in a year of shock waves for Western news outlets in China amid increasingly fraught relations. China does not allow its nationals to work as journalists for foreign media organizations in China, only as news assistants.

Source: Washington Post December 11, 2020 09:59 UTC