Two Australian embassy officials in Beijing have been dispatched to southwest China to investigate the detention of an Australian woman.

Our China correspondent John Taylor says it is believed Nancy Chen is a practitioner of Falun Gong, which is banned […] in China.

Falun Gong activists in Australia recently claimed Ms Chen, 34, an Australian citizen, had disappeared in the city of Chengdu in China's Sichuan province.

Ms Chen was supposed to be visiting relatives, but rang her mother last week to say she had been kidnapped, before the phone dropped out.

Chinese authorities have confirmed Ms Chen is being detained, but have not said why.