Beijing authorities have confirmed that a Chinese employee of Bloomberg News has been arrested and accused of endangering national security, according to a report from the news agency.

The authorities said journalist Haze Fan was detained “in accordance with the law”. Fan was evidently detained on Monday; she stopped responding to calls and messages shortly after speaking to her editors at 11.30am, Bloomberg said.

A Bloomberg spokesperson said in an online announcement, “We are very concerned for her, and have been actively speaking to Chinese authorities to better understand the situation. We are continuing to do everything we can to support her while we seek more information.”

John Micklethwait, Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief, said in an interview broadcast on Bloomberg, “Haze is a very talented person. [She is] a very respected and integral part of our newsroom... We will continue to work as hard as possible to help her and her family at this time.”

Micklethwait said Fan’s detention will “not at all” change Bloomberg’s approach to covering China. “We intend to continue covering China in exactly the same way... We have broken a lot of news in China and we will continue to do so,” he said.

Fan joined Bloomberg in 2017 and has described herself as a “Global Business Reporter”. She previously worked for CNBC, Al Jazeera, CBS News and Thomson Reuters.

Fan was arrested and detained for allegedly engaging in criminal activities that endanger national security, according to officials quoted by Apple Daily. Her case is still under investigation, and her family had been notified about the development, the officials said.

Fan’s work at Bloomberg was largely reporting on business news. She recently covered major news events such as the halting of Ant Financial’s initial public offering in November.

In 2016, Chinese netizens accused Fan of “causing trouble” after she issued a Tweet criticizing an apparently racist article published in Air China’s in-flight magazine, titled “Air China warns London visitors: Avoid Indian, Pakistani, black areas.” Air China subsequently withdrew that edition of its magazine.

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