The description given by Islamic State (IS) insurgents of a Chinese citizen they claim to have captured matches that of a Chinese national reported to be missing abroad, the foreign ministry confirmed on Friday.
"We launched an emergency response immediately after we were informed of the situation," foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said.
China is firmly opposed to violence against innocent civilians, Xinhua news agency quoted Hong as saying.
The IS announced on Wednesday that it had captured a Chinese consultant and a Norwegian man.
They were identified in a report in its official online magazine, Dabiq, as Fan Jinghui, a freelance consultant from Beijing and Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad from Oslo.
The two hostages were put up for sale.