China confirms Chinese man captured by IS militants

BEIJING: China today virtually confirmed that a man kidnapped by the Islamic State terror group is a Chinese citizen listed as missing abroad but declined to say whether it would pay any ransom to secure his release.

The description given by IS insurgents of a Chinese citizen they claim to have captured matches a Chinese missing abroad, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a media briefing here.

To questions whether China would pay the ransom demanded by IS, he declined to respond directly, saying "we launched an emergency response immediately after we were informed of the situation".

IS identified the Chinese hostage as Fan Jinghui, a 50-year-old consultant.

The jihadist terror group -- which has become notorious for gory beheadings and mass killings -- came out with an "advertisement" saying that the hostage was "for sale" though it did not specify the ransom amount nor when the deadline to pay it would expire.