TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A 22-year-old Taiwanese man who disappeared after arriving in China in August is being held for fraud in Tianjin, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said Friday (Oct. 4).

Relatives of Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒) said he had notified them of his safe arrival in Shanghai on Aug. 27, but nothing had been heard of him since. Kuo planned to travel onward to Hefei in the province of Anhui.

Almost a month after his disappearance, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said he was being investigated in a case of alleged fraud, per CNA. On Friday, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) revealed that Kuo was being held in the northern city of Tianjin near Beijing.

However, because China barred him from contacting the outside world, his relatives were unable to travel to Tianjin to visit him, Luo added. There were also no details available about what the resident of Kaohsiung is being accused of. 

According to Chinese practice, only once the investigation is completed and charges filed, will the allegations be revealed.

The SEF said that from January 2023 until September, 77 Taiwanese had been reported missing in China, per Liberty Times. Thirty of those were later located, but a high proportion of them were accused of fraud, according to Luo. 

The SEF cautioned people to be cautious if offered job opportunities likely to make a lot of money in China, or in Southeast Asia.