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Where, oh where, is Ma Jisheng, China's ambassador to Iceland.
Ma hasn't been seen since January. His bio has been taken down from the embassy website. His name has been erased in the embassy's welcoming message. The last posted reference to him comes from September of last year.
Some are speculating he may have been a double agent for Japan.
Even some China state-run media like Global Times has asked for more clarity on the case of the missing ambassador saying transparency in these cases would be educational for the general public, if nothing else.
Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has "no information" on Ma's whereabouts and, for that matter, his wife. A ministry spokesman also had no answer as to who was China's ambassador to Iceland today.
Icelandic officials were scratching heads wondering what the heck was happening. Icelandic Foreign ministry spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said officials were told Ma would return in March. Chinese representatives in May said Ma wouldn't be back citing "personal reasons." The Chinese embassy is staffed with a "caretaker ambassador," Gunnarsdottir said.
U.S.-based Mingjing News, a widely followed Chinese-language news portal, asserted Ma and wife were held by Chinese state security on charges of spying for Japan, which is entangled with China in a heated dispute over East China Sea islands. Those reports were picked up by Hong Kong media and some mainland sources before abruptly disappearing from web sites.
Speaking to Reuters, a Japanese official said his government was aware of the reports, but it was a domestic Chinese issue. The official declined further comment.
Ma served two terms at the Chinese Embassy in Japan. He was a secretary there from 1991 to 1995. He returned as minister counsellor from 2004 to 2008.
Ma went from Tokyo to four years as as Foreign ministry deputy information director. Then, it was Reykjavik bound in December 2012 as ambassador to Iceland.
And today, who knows where Ma and wife have gone?
