Update | Outspoken Chinese American investor Charles Xue detained in Beijing 'prostitution bust'

Famous Chinese-American angel investor and social media celebrity Charles Xue has been detained in Beijing for suspected involvement in prostitution, the Beijing police said on Sunday. 

After a tip-off from local residents, officers from the Chaoyang District police department captured Xue, 60, along with a 22-year-old woman from Henan Province in a residential compound in northern Beijing, said a post on Beijing's police official Weibo social media account.

"After questioning, the duo confessed to facts of involvement in prostitution. The police department has by law placed the two under administrative detention," the post said. 

Xue, the son of a former deputy mayor of Beijing and a naturalised American citizen, is one of the most prominent figures in the Chinese internet industry and co-founder of telecoms firm UT Starcom. He has invested in many Chinese internet startup firms. 

Xue, better known in China by his Chinese alias Xue Manzi, is also one of the most prominent liberal voices on Chinese social media, with a following of more than 12 million on the popular social media platform Sina Weibo. An avid social media user who posts dozens of messages per day, he last updated his weibo at 5.41pm on Friday, just an hour and a half before his alleged detention. 

Xue's mobile phone was switched off on Sunday. A spokesperson at the US embassy in Beijing was not available for comment on Sunday morning. Calls to the press office of Beijing's Chaoyang district police department were not answered.