China Lets Australian Academic Return Home

An Australian academic and permanent resident who had been barred from leaving China for more than a week while the government questioned him for unspecified national security-related reasons was able to fly home Sunday morning, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Chongyi Feng, a professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, who studies contemporary Chinese economics and politics, had traveled to China about a month earlier for a research trip during which he met with academics and human rights lawyers in several cities. Feng said it remained "a mystery" to him why he had been prevented from leaving but that he was told he "was requested to assist some sort of investigation."

The New York Times noted in its reporting on the subject that Feng, who has been researching China's human rights lawyers, has been a frequent critic of Beijing's crackdown on political dissent.