High-profile disappearances raise concerns in China

Welcome back everyone. Human rights activists say two recent disappearance in China should be a wake-up call about what is going on there. The activists say the message from communist leaders is clear. No one is too big and anyone could be next. Matt Ruber's reports. The A-list actress and the Interpol chief, two of China's most famous international citizens, and yet in President Xi Jinping's authoritarian security state, each has proved powerless. Huang Bingbing is one of China's biggest film stars, but in June this year, a former TV anchor accused the actress of not paying proper taxes and within weeks, she vanished. No one saw her for months. In 2016, Meng Hongwei became the first Chinese head of Interpol, but last month on a visit to China, he disappeared. His wife told CNN his last message to her was a knife emoji. At the beginning, I could not be certain what happened to him. Then after I received his message, I knew that he was in danger. He's been accused of taking bribes and other crimes, but remains missing. Both disappearances are part of Xi Jinping's signature domestic policy, a ruthless anti-corruption drive that's estimated to have netted more than 1 million government officials so far, plus big fish in the business world, too. It's an easy way, critics say, for Xi to get rid of his enemies and terrorize their families. I worry about his life. I don't know his life or what happened. It's a feeling Li Wenzhou knows well. Her husband, Wang Quanzhang, is also in state custody. She hasn't seen or spoken to him in more than three years. My biggest fear right now is whether or not he'll come out of jail alive. She's protested for his release, too, but her husband isn't rich. He's just a middle-class human rights lawyer accused of, quote, subversion of state power, imprisoned along with hundreds of other such lawyers and activists since 2015. They're often held in so-called black jails, unable to communicate with the outside world. Prisoners we've spoken to allege torture, though China denies it. We found one of those jails in 2016. And to be honest, we didn't know what to expect when we were walking up here. But around here, it is relatively quiet. That's an unassuming building, but it does belie what activists say goes on inside. On Wednesday, back in Beijing, we saw Fan Bingbing in public for the first time in four months, leaving the airport. She was accused of tax fraud, fined nearly $130 million. The only way, it seems, to emerge from the ranks of the disappeared is to grovel at the foot of the state. Without the favorable policies of the Communist Party and state, there would have been no Fan Bingbing, she wrote on social media, her only public statement so far. In China, it doesn't matter if you're a huge official or a famous actress. If they can disappear, anyone can. It means anyone can be next. For China's president, Xi Jinping, the country's most powerful leader in decades, and the man Donald Trump calls a good friend, there is no celebrity too big or human rights lawyer too small who can't be taken down as a threat. Matt Rivers, CNN, Beijing.