A security-camera video recording showed reporter Guan Jian was taken away by five men in a hotel in Shanxi.

A senior reporter has gone missing in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, after he pursued an in-depth interview with a real estate company accused of land use violations, a Beijing newspaper reported today.

Ren Pengyu, the editor in chief of Beijing-based weekly Network News, told Beijing Times he has failed to contact reporter Guan Jian after receiving his last phone call from him on December 1. Guan was in Taiyuan when he made the call.

Police said Guan was last seen at a Holiday Inn hotel. A security-camera video recording showed Guan was taken away by five men from the hotel's lobby about 6 pm on December 1, according to the report.

Police were cited as saying that Guan can only be identified as a missing person, not a kidnapped victim, at this point.

Guan, 49, is a Shanxi Province native. He traveled to Taiyuan at the end of November for an interview about a story on a land use violation case, the report said.

Based on the video, police said Guan arrived in the lobby at 5:13 pm. A man sat opposite him at 5:58 pm, made a call and left quickly.

One minute later, the man and four other guys entered the lobby, grabbed Guan by the arms and took him outside. They got in a silver car and left, the report said.

Guan said the interview had been successful when he last spoke to Ren at 4pm on December 1, the Beijing Times said.

The newspaper didn't reveal the name of the real estate company, but said the legal person of the company is a deputy director of a People's Congress in a county in Shanxi Province.

Ren told the newspaper that Guan's son also does not know anything about the disappearance of his father.

Guan's son went to his father's house and realized Guan was missing after finding all his certificates, notebooks and laptop were at home.

Cell phone records show Guan's last two calls were made at 5:56 pm on December 1. They were to his two friends who offered tips on the interview, according to the report.

The two men told police Guan asked to meet them in the lobby of the hotel, but they didn't see him upon arrival. They thought Guan left for other matters and were not suspicious even though his cell phone's power was off, the report said.

(Shanghai Daily December 15, 2008)