A Hong Kong businessman believed to have been taken from Macau to the mainland against his will last week was wanted by Chinese authorities there, according to an informed source.
The source said businessman Pang Hoi-sang allegedly had links to a case of commercial fraud exposed in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone several years ago. One person connected to the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress had been given a suspended death sentence and another a 15-year jail term when the case went before the courts.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Macau Government said its immigration officials had detained Mr Pang for questioning on his arrival from Hong Kong on Tuesday afternoon, but released him 40 minutes later.
Twenty-five minutes after his release, Mr Pang had left the former Portuguese enclave for Zhuhai, it said.
The incident, which aroused concerns about Macau's autonomy, coincided with a meeting of senior police from Macau, Guangdong province and Hong Kong in Macau.
Mr Pang's wife, Pang Liu Hiu-foon, rejected the explanation for her husband's departure provided by the Macau Government and said her husband did not have the necessary documents to enter the mainland on his Macau trip.
