Updated March 25, 2017 22:54:06

Photo: Dr Feng said he had been "delayed due to some business". (Supplied: UTS)

A University of Technology Sydney professor and critic of growing Chinese government influence in Australia says he is heading back to Sydney after allegedly being prevented from boarding a flight home from China on Friday.

Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at UTS Chongyi Feng told the ABC he was "OK" but did not confirm claims by friends that he was stopped from boarding a flight in the southern city of Kunming and detained.

In a brief phone call, Dr Feng said he was now in the southern city of Guangzhou, had been "delayed due to some business", and would be on a Saturday evening flight back to Australia.

Repeated attempts to call him again either went unanswered or did not get through.

A staff member at a Guangzhou hotel that friends say he was being held in, said his name did not match anyone on its guest list.

"The Australian Government is aware that a UTS professor, who is an Australian permanent resident, has been prevented from leaving China", a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs.

"The Australian Government is able to provide consular assistance only to Australian citizens who have entered China on their Australian passport", the spokesperson said.

Dr Feng is prominent in Australia's Chinese community, having previously been the head of Chinese Studies at UTS for 11 years, and was at one point a newspaper publisher.

More recently he had been vocal about the growing control and influence of Beijing on Australia's Chinese-language media outlets.

He had travelled to China before without incident.

His apparent ordeal comes as China's Premier Li Keqiang wraps up an unprecedented five day visit to Australia in which he is promoting closer economic ties between the two countries.

It also comes as the Senate considers ratifying an extradition treaty between Australia and China that has been held up for the best part of a decade due to concerns about China's Communist Party-controlled legal system.

Topics: international-law, industrial-relations, foreign-affairs, china

First posted March 25, 2017 22:21:50