--- description: Chinese journalist Li Xin, who went missing from Thailand nearly two weeks ago, has resurfaced in China saying he is being held by police title: Missing Dissident Journalist Reappears in China image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf93428efceebdd51/69887c1a8e06018c7046471f/china-disappearances_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Missing Dissident Journalist Who Fled to Thailand Is Back in China, His Wife Says by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 4, 2016 6:15 AM CUT  In this Nov. 20, 2015, file photo, Chinese journalist Li Xin talks to an Associated Press reporter over Skype, at the Associated Press office in New Delhi, India In this Nov. 20, 2015, file photo, Chinese journalist Li Xin talks to an Associated Press reporter over Skype, at the Associated Press office in New Delhi, IndiaSaurabh Das—AP by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 4, 2016 6:15 AM CUT Chinese journalist Li Xin, who went missing from Thailand nearly two weeks ago, has [resurfaced](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/04/world/asia/china-thailand-li-xin.html?smid=tw-share&%5Fr=1 "undefined") in China saying he is being held by the police, his wife said Wednesday, making him the latest in a series of individuals suspected to have been abducted by the Chinese government. “He said that he had returned to China voluntarily and was under investigation, but he didn’t say where he was,” Li’s wife He Fangmei told the New York _Times_ via telephone from their home in the country’s central province of Henan. “His tone was like they’d given him guidance,” she added. “I knew someone at his side was telling him what to say, and he said, ‘Don’t get involved. Don’t ask so much. I’m doing fine.’” The 10-minute phone call was the first contact He had with her husband since he [disappeared](http://time.com/4189876/thailand-china-dissident-journalist-li-xin-missing/ "undefined") near Thailand’s border with Laos in early January. He had reportedly traveled to the Southeast Asian nation following failed attempts to seek asylum in the U.S. from India, where he initially fled. **Read Next:** [_Inside the Secretive and Fearful World of the Chinese Exile Community in Thailand_](http://time.com/4203754/china-human-rights-dissidents-overseas-thailand-bangkok/ "undefined") While in the Indian capital city New Delhi, Li, an online editor and staunch pro-democracy advocate at China’s _Southern Metropolis Daily_ tabloid, had revealed a list of alleged topics and sources that China banned its journalists from covering. He also alleged that Chinese government agents had forced him to spy on his journalist peers and other activists. Li is the fourth dissident to resurface in China after [seeking refuge in Thailand](http://time.com/4203754/china-human-rights-dissidents-overseas-thailand-bangkok/ "undefined") within the past four months, as the Chinese government’s rapidly [expanding crackdown](http://time.com/4188307/china-kidnapping-dissidents-lee-bo-gui-minhai-mighty-current/ "undefined") on nonconformist voices continues to extend beyond its own borders and the Thai military junta government appears [ever ready](http://time.com/3952498/china-uighur-xinjiang-deportations-turkey-thailand-human-rights/ "undefined") to cooperate. Two such prominent dissidents, Jiang Yefei and Dong Guangping, were deported in November by Thailand’s authoritarian regime for alleged “immigration violations,” despite being officially recognized as refugees by the U.N. Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai, co-owner of a publishing company known for its salacious books on Chinese Communist Party officials, disappeared from his apartment in the Thai beach resort town of Pattaya in October. **Read Next:** [_Hong Kong’s Existential Anxieties Continue to Mount in the Face of China’s Encroachment_](http://time.com/4199493/hong-kong-booksellers-china-democracy/ "undefined") Gui, a Swedish national, suddenly [appeared](http://time.com/4183967/hong-kong-publisher-gui-minhai-mmighty-current-china/ "undefined") on Chinese state television last month, nearly in tears as he confessed, many suspect under coercion, to a drunk-driving crime he purportedly committed over a decade ago. Three of his colleagues from controversial publishing house Mighty Current Media are [still missing](http://time.com/4199493/hong-kong-booksellers-china-democracy/ "undefined"), while a fourth — Lee Bo, believed to have been kidnapped from the semiautonomous territory Hong Kong — is being [detained](http://time.com/4184649/hong-kong-publisher-lee-bo-china-guangdong/ "undefined") in southeastern China. The authoritarian Asian power’s dragnet has not been restricted to the publishing sector or even its own countrymen, with instances in recent weeks including the [detention](http://time.com/4201870/china-hangzhou-pastor-gu-yuese-detained-crosses/ "undefined") of a prominent Chinese pastor, the dubious confession and subsequent [deportation](http://time.com/4193543/swedish-activist-peter-dahlin-released-china-deported/ "undefined") of a Swedish aid worker and the [charging](http://time.com/4199226/china-dandong-kevin-garratt-spying-canada/ "undefined") of a Canadian man with espionage. As for the journalist Li, many questions still remain despite the revelation that he is in China, with Thai authorities telling the _Times_ on Wednesday that there is no record of him having left the country. His wife, meanwhile, remains unconvinced that he returned to China of his own volition. “I know this is them \[the Chinese government\] speaking,” she [said](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/03/asia/chinese-missing-journalist/index.html "undefined") in a tearful conversation with CNN. “It completely contradicts what Li Xin would like to say.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4207428/li-xin-journalist-thailand-return-china/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4207428/li-xin-journalist-thailand-return-china/"},"headline":"Missing Dissident Journalist Who Fled to Thailand Is Back in China, His Wife Says","datePublished":"2016-02-04T06:15:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:45:00.242Z","description":"Li Xin disappeared from Thailand in early January","url":"https://time.com/4207428/li-xin-journalist-thailand-return-china/","keywords":["Thailand","China","Laos","Journalist","return","wife","Lee Bo","Gui Minhai"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf93428efceebdd51/69887c1a8e06018c7046471f/china-disappearances_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf93428efceebdd51/69887c1a8e06018c7046471f/china-disappearances_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Li Xin","caption":"Li Xin","creditText":"Saurabh Das—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4207428/li-xin-journalist-thailand-return-china/","name":"Missing Dissident Journalist Who Fled to Thailand Is Back in China, His Wife Says"}}]}] ```